Chiral resolution of native DL-malic acid was achieved by ligand-exchange capillary electrophoresis using copper(II)-L-tartrate as a chiral selector. Factors affecting chiral resolution, migration time, and peak area of malic acid were studied. The running conditions for optimum separation of malic acid were found to be 1 mm copper(II) sulfate-1 MM L-tartrate (pH 5.1) with an effective voltage of -20 kV at 30 degreesC, using direct detection at 280 nm, and resolution (R-s) of racemic malic acid was approximately 4. With this system, D- and L-malic acids in apple juice were analyzed successfully.