HPTLC Fingerprinting

High Performance Thin Layer chromatography is a versatile technique with applications in herbals, food, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals.

What is HPTLC Fingerprinting?

HPTLC Fingerprinting is the representation of the phytochemical composition of a plant extract or formulation, in the form of an image at 254nm, 366nm and white light. It is a sequence of peaks or zones of a chromatogram specific for a sample.

United States Pharmacopoeia definition of HPTLC Fingerprint is “It is the electronic image of the visual HPTLC chromatogram.” HPTLC fingerprint is evaluated based on Rf, colour and relative intensity of bands in the electronic image.

For comparison BRM (Botanical Reference Material) is used. If BRM is not available a sample can be collected from the field/market sample is sent to recognized botanical institute e.g., NBRI Lucknow, Agharkar Research Institute Pune, Botanical survey of India western circle Pune. etc. for authentication and that can be used as BRM.

Phytochemical reference standards (RS) are also applied along with samples. Respective plant samples/ raw materials collected from different geographical locations/ climatic conditions can be applied to check the variation in species.

While developing HPTLC fingerprint for certain plant material aim should be to develop fingerprint which shows maximum no. of phytoconstituents with good resolution.

HPTLC for Herbal Chromatographic Fingerprinting

HPTLC technique can be used for herbal fingerprinting. Each plant has a different fingerprint pattern. When the plant extract is run in a suitable mobile phase the separation pattern observed is the herbal fingerprint of the said plant. HPTLC is a preliminary step to identify phytochemical compounds and secondary metabolites of a plant.

Fingerprints play an important role in quality control of herbal medicine. It can be used for authentication of raw material or detection of confounded material/ substitutes.

Herbal products and drugs are gaining momentum and so is the substandard material being added to gain profits by manufacturers. Consumers are growing towards organic products. HPTLC plays a major role in detection of such adulterated material.

Herbal Fingerprinting is the technique used for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of herbal components in drugs. Chromatographic fingerprinting is used for both establishing the identity and quality of the herbs being added into formulation.

With a sample size of more than 100 samples in parallel, using Chromatographic Fingerprinting is not only fast and effective, but also economically flexible. Modern chromatographic fingerprinting is used at dual stages during the manufacture of an herbal formula. An initial fingerprinting is carried out for each of the herbs being added to the formulation.

Once the identity and purity of the herb is established all the herbs are incorporated in suitably processed to produce the final poly herbal formulation. A chromatographic fingerprint of the poly herbal formulation is developed.

If you want to perform HPTLC and Herbal fingerprinting for your business, we provide CAMAG HPTLC machines at an affordable price. Contact us for a quote today.