A new chiral derivatizing agent, (S)-N-(4-nitrophenoxycarbonyl)phenylalanine methoxyethyl ester, (S)-NIFE, was applied for the high-performance liquid chromatographic separation of enantiomers of 19 unnatural secondary amino acids: proline, pipecolic acid analogues, piperazine-2-carboxylic acid, morpholine-3-carboxylic acid, thiomorpholine-3-carboxylic acid and analogues containing the 1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinoline, 1,2,3,4-tetrahydronorharmane, 1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-2-carboline and 2-benzazepine skeletons. Excellent resolutions were achieved for most of the investigated compounds by using a reversed-phase mobile phase system. The conditions of separation were optimized by variation of the mobile phase composition.