In this study, a preparative high performance centrifugal partition chromatography (HPCPC) method for isolation and purification of the bioactive component piperine directly from the ethanol extract of Piper nigrum L. was successfully established by using n-hexane-ethyl acetate-methanol-water as the two-phase solvent system. The upper phase of n-hexane-ethyl acetate-methanol-water (6:5:6:5, v/v) was used as the stationary phase of CPC. Under the optimum conditions, 40 mg of piperine at 98.5% purity, as determined by HPLC, was yielded from 300 mg of the crude extract in a single CPC separation. The peak fraction of CPC was identified by H-1 NMR and C-13 NMR.