The adsorption of histidine-containing dipeptides such as carnosine (Car) onto a copper(II) immobilized chelating resin has recently been reported. Cu(II) immobilized iminodiacetic acid chelating resin selectively adsorbs Car via a metal affinity interaction from saline water. In this study, the adsorption behavior of Car on chelating resins after the immobilization of a series of divalent transition metal ions (Cu(II), Ni(II), Co(II) and Zn(II)) was investigated. Only Cu(II) immobilized chelating resin (Cu-IDA) adsorbed Car from the saline solution. The elution of Cu(II) from Cu-IDA was minimized by optimizing the amount of Cu(II) immobilized on the resin. In a column operation for the recovery of Car using Cu-IDA we found that Car was efficiently concentrated to 20 times the concentration of the feed solution. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.