An apparatus and method are described for trapping gas chromatographic fractions and transferring them to another gas chromatograph or other analytical instrument. Fractions are collected on a short column of cold gas chromatographic packing and are eluted by rapidly heating the packing and passing through it a syringeful of carrier gas. The easily constructed device efficiently traps polar and non-polar substances with high and low volatilities in amounts as small as 10 ng. High recoveries were obtained with carrier gas flow rates in the range of 30 to 100 ml/min.