Gardenia jasminoides Ellis has been used for traditional Chinese medicine to treat all forms of febrile diseases. A cost-efficient and process-efficient separation of the bioactive molecule geniposide from G. jasminoides Ellis by high-performance counter-current chromatography (HPCCC) has been developed. Separation by preparative HPCCC was performed with a two-phase solvent system composed of ethyl acetate-butanol-water (0.4:1.6:2, v/v). The separation yielded 445 mg of geniposide with a purity of 95.2% from 4.0 g of crude extract. A factor of cost efficiency was developed and usec. for an economic evaluation of the separation process. The cost efficiency for geniposide was 0.070 g h(-1) $(-1). The separation process by HPCCC was demonstrated to be more economical and efficient than those methods by HSCCC and LC. (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.