The paper presents the results of a study on aryl phases aimed at the increase of the separation selectivity of substances containing pi electrons, and improving the reproducibility of retention data. The above phases contain not only a carbon chain of a different length, linking them to the support, but also one or two aromatic rings. The suitability of the newly obtained packings for the purposes of high-performance liquid chromatography was verified on the basis of a description of surface topography before and after the modification process. Various physicochemical methods were employed to determine the effectiveness of chemical modification, i.e., elemental analysis, infrared spectroscopy, and nuclear magnetic resonance. The aryl packings obtained were used for the separation of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons and budesonide epimers, tested under hydroorganic conditions (water/ethanol, water/methanol, water/acetonitrile). The application of a methanol/water mobile phase and a new-generation naphthylpropyl stationary phase for the separation of the 22R and 22S diastereoisomers of budesonide allowed the obtention of reproducible results and make qualitative and quantitative determinations of particular enantiomers. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.