High-speed thin-layer chromatography

Thin-layer chromatography (TLC) is one of the most popular and widely used separation techniques because of its ease of use, cost-effectiveness, high sensitivity, speed of separation, as well as its capacity to analyze multiple samples simultaneously. It has been applied to many disciplines including biochemistry [1,2], toxicology [3,4], pharmacology [5,6], environmental science [7], food science [8,9], and chemistry [10,11]. TLC can be used for separation, isolation, identification, and quantification of components in a mixture. It can also be utilized on the preparative scale to isolate an individual component. A large variety of TLC equipment is available and discussed later in this chapter. 

The reason for using thin layer chromatography is its wide applicability to a great number of different types of samples, high sensitivity, and speed of separation with relatively low cost. This technique is very fast, and many separations can be accomplished in less than an hour. 

The qualitative and quantitative determinations of morphinane alkaloids or their derivatives in opium were studied by application of different methods (278, 533, 534), by differentia] spectrophotometry (535, 536), thin-layer chromatography (509, 537, 538), gas chromatography in conjunction with mass spectrometry (539, 540), and high-speed liquid chromatography (thebaine) (327, 534). A procedure for the quantitative determination of morphine in opium by isotopic dilution has been developed (541). 

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