TLC in the Analysis of Plant Material
Maria Zych, Alina Pyka
Abstract
This paper provides an overview of thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) methods for analyzing plant materials and herbal formulations, as described in scientific publications from January 2022 to July 2025. It describes the use of TLC in the qualitative and quantitative examination of plant materials and pharmaceutical preparations containing herbs, including profiling plant materials using TLC and applying it to HPTLC plates. It also describes other modern methods that improve component separations, such as applying TLC to profile plant formulations and detect adulterations and contaminants in them. Additionally, it discusses TLC coupled with other methods, such as principal component analysis (PCA), hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA), mass spectrometry (MS), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), and image analysis (IA). The quantitative determination of biologically active compounds in herbs and herbal formulations is presented based on methods that combine TLC with densitometry. The paper also discusses TLC with effect-oriented analysis, including the detection of antimicrobial, antioxidant, enzyme-inhibiting, endocrine-disrupting, genotoxic, and cytotoxic substances. The advantages, disadvantages, and prospects of analyzing plant material using the TLC technique are indicated. TLC/HPTLC has great prospects for use by regulatory authorities due to the low cost of analysis and high throughput.