A new partition thin-layer chromatographic method for steroid separations

TLC plates with a 25 mu thick polyamide stationary phase were modified for the separation of neutral steroids by impregnation with propylene glycol. A mixture of tritiated 5 alpha-androstan-3 alpha,17 beta-diol, testosterone, 17 beta-hydroxy-5 alpha-androstan-3-one and 4-androstene-3,17-dione was applied to the plate and developed in a toluene mobile phase to a height of 13.6 cm. This resulted in complete resolution of the 4 compounds as detected by a gas flow scanner or imaging analyzer. Cutting and elution of peak areas with methanol resulted in quantitative recovery of all four steroids. The thinness of the layer also permitted a 3-5% counting efficiency on scanning, resulting in good quantitation of recovery without liquid scintillation counting. The high sorptive capacity of the polyamide layer also enabled extracts of normal human serum to be defatted on the TLC plate by development with pure hexane prior to the toluene step. The new method thus offers several advantages over existing methods for steroid separations and should be adaptable to separations of other relatively non-polar compounds.