A novel recovery and pre-purification method were developed for producing (+)-dihydromyricetin from Hovenia dulcis, giving high purity and yield. The simple, efficient procedure involved biomass extraction, liquid-liquid extraction, and synthetic adsorbent treatment, followed by low-pressure chromatography. The use of active clay treatment and silica gel low-pressure chromatography in the pre-purification process allowed the efficient separation of (+)-dihydromyricetin from interfering compounds and, compared with alternative processes, increased the yield and purity of crude (+)-dihydromyricetin for subsequent high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) purification. (+)-Dihydromyricetin of over 50.0% purity could be obtained simply with a 71.8% overall yield from biomass using this pre-purification method, while minimizing solvent usage, size, and complexity of the subsequent HPLC operations for (+)-dihydromyricetin purification. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.