Promoting the use of HPTLC in plant analysis and other analytical fields is the main purpose of the International Association for the Advancement of High Performance Thin Layer Chromatography (HPTLC Association). For this, representatives across academia, industry, research, regulatory and standard setting bodies are brought together to facilitate a worldwide exchange of knowledge between HPTLC users and share the spirit of working in an exciting analytical field!
Presentation 1: HPTLC and HPTLC-MS – An essential tool in the assessment of botanical dietary supplements
Dr. Aboli Girme, Senior Manager, Research and Innovation, Pharmanza Herbal Pvt. Ltd. India
HPTLC is an essential tool in assessing botanical dietary supplements. It is a sophisticated technique for qualitatively and quantitatively separating complex botanical mixtures into components. Its applications include plant material ID-testing, plant part fingerprinting, adulteration testing, identification of natural molecules, phytochemical analysis, quantitative and confirmative analysis with a combinatorial approach, HPTLC-MS, FTIR, and scanning diode laser (SDL). These approaches are well validated and accepted by botanical guidelines and pharmacopeias.
HPTLC-MS is of special interest due to its high sensitivity, efficient analysis, and capacity to enhance structural characterization. The elements of novelty and innovation can be rediscovered in the botanical-based markets comprising different sectors like nutraceuticals, food supplements, botanicals, dietary supplements, multifunctional foods, herbal drug preparations, and traditional medicines. These markets for natural substances have been changing dynamically with challenges of effective technologies for ensuring quality, purity, and stability, and identification of these complex botanical products can be provided by key HPTLC research and findings. As a result, the current strategy is an easy and reproducible method database for comparison and analysis of fingerprints, components, and the detection of adulterants, if any, by HPTLC-Densitometry or MS.
Presentation 2: HPTLC – A good choice for extractables and leachables studies
Dr. Kashyap Thummar, Assistant Professor, Gujarat Technological University, India
Pharmaceutical containers are designed to keep pharmaceuticals safe, however they can also be a source of contamination owing to extractable and leachable (E&L) plastic material. Trace levels of extractables and leachables in matrices, which can be rather complex, are a great challenge for analysts since the tests must achieve extremely low detection and/or quantification limits (ppb levels). Hence, liquid chromatography and gas chromatography tandem with mass spectrometry are often used for E&L studies due to its sensitivity. However, one of the issues with mass spectrometry detectors is the base line saturation caused by the consistent injection of liquid solvents, which are frequently exposed with plastic containers. As a result, there is a potential of false positive detection.
In this presentation, Dr. Kashyap Thummar explores how a novel HPTLC approach was suggested for analysing the phthalate content from pharmaceutical items packaged in plastic containers. The technique was successfully implemented for the detection of four phthalates with limits of 100 ng/band. The significant amount of phthalate was quantified from the pharmaceuticals.
Further research was also conducted to track plastic exposure in the human body. The phthalate (di-ester phthalate) is metabolized and transformed into mono ester metabolites, with more than 95% of the metabolites eliminated through urine. A novel HPTLC technique was also developed to measure phthalate metabolites in urine samples. The 51 real samples were also tested from patients, including 14 urine samples from patients who had undergone parenteral preparation therapy in hospitals and 37 samples from a fertility clinic where patients were infertile. The HPTLC technique was effectively used to measure the phthalate metabolites in these patients' urine samples. The HPTLC technique has been shown to be more successful, repeatable, simple, rapid, and cost-effective than the sophisticated techniques used for the same analysis.