A separation technique for amino acids, phenylalanine and tryptophan, from aqueous solution was studied in a column that was packed with a polymeric resin, XAD-16. This technique is based on a cyclic operation that has three typical steps such as adsorption, desorption, and washing. In particular, the desorption step for amino acids from the resin was carried out by using organic solvents, isopropyl alcohol and methanol. The desorption mechanism was assumed to be a competitive adsorption between amino acids and solvents, and the ideal adsorbed solution theory (IAST) based on the Langmuir equation as a single component isotherm was used in describing multicomponent equilibria. Adsorption and desorption breakthrough curves of the two amino acids were measured under various experimental conditions such as concentration, flow rate, and column length, in order to check the feasibility of the resin as a medium for the separation of amino acids. It was found that this separation technique could be a promising one for this purpose. Also, a simple dynamic model was formulated to describe both adsorption and desorption breakthrough curves of amino acids.