Basis and pharmaceutical applications of thin-layer chromatography

Abstract Thin-layer chromatography (TLC) will continue to play a basic role in determining the separation possibilities of chromatographic methods for the routine analysis of large numbers of samples or to analyze samples in cases where high-performance liquid chromatography has difficulties. TLC has the advantage that it does not require sophisticated and expensive analytical instrumentation. Several samples can be analyzed simultaneously and it provides the possibility of a wide variety of detection methods for the separated components either by using UV or chemical reactions resulting in coloured spots. Therefore, TLC procedures are important especially in resource-limited countries or laboratories. A number of further instrumental developments have been made to improve the sample application on the plates and in applying controlled and pressurized mobile-phase flow. The detection and further analysis of the separated components can be carried out using sophisticated instrumentation such as mass spectrometry and infrared spectroscopy as mentioned in this chapter.