[Optimization of the solvent system in thin-layer chromatography (TLC)]

Much effort in TLC has been devoted to optimization methods of solvent system in order to get best separation of components. Various optimization methods have been established, but the universality of some methods was poor. They were only applicable to samples of known components. This paper reports a complex method. When the complexity of the solvent system was determined, uniform design was used to arrange experiments, the data obtained from scanning chromatogram were input computer to get regression equation. The precision of the regression equation should be judged at first. If the precision was proper, the regression equation could be input the program of the complex method to obtain the composition of the solvent system. Optimization results were dichloroethane-benzene-methanol (4.81:4.42:0.78) for cortical hormone; toluene-ethanol-dichloroethane-trichloromethane (2.30:1.46:3.32:2.92) for sulfa drugs and trichloromethane-methanol-ethyl acetate (3.30:3.29:3.41) for ginkgo biloba. Then the verification experiment was made. The verifying test showed that the experimental results are identical with the calculated ones.