Modern TLC: A Key Technique for Identification and Quality Control of Botanicals and Dietary Supplements

Thin-layer chromatography (TLC) is generally regarded as a common analytical technique. Everybody ‘knows’ it and it is used to some extent in almost every laboratory in the world. Unfortunately for most analysts TLC remains what it has been for many years–a rapid, simple, inexpensive, and not very precise tool. When one considers the latest technical and methodological developments, however, modern high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC), also known as planar chromatography, is a reliable and powerful analytical technique, which can be in full compliance with current good-manufacturing practice (cGMP). TLC is the method of choice when many samples must be compared, when flexibility is important, and when rapid quantitative and semi-quantitative data are needed at low cost per sample.