Chinese J. Food & Drug 23 (5), 411-415 (2021). Dashanzha tablet is a Chinese patent medicine with the function of appetizing and digestion, used for food accumulation caused by loss of appetite, indigestion, abdominal distension. For quality control, TLC of the petroleum ether extracts on silica gel with cyclohexane - methylene dichloride - ethyl acetate - glacial acetic acid 200:50:80:1. Detection by spraying with 10 % sulfuric acid in ethanol and heating at 105 ℃ until the zones are visible in daylight. Identification by fingerprint comparison with the standard ursolic acid and the standard ingredient drug undergone the same procedure in parallel. Satisfactory results were achieved by using plates from different manufactures and under varying temperature and humidity conditions.

Chinese J. Ethnomed. & Ethnopharm. (10), 36-39 (2021). Huangjia Ruangan granules is a TCM preparation, which relaxes the liver and promotes blood circulation, and is used for treating liver fibrosis and early cirrhosis, spleen deficiency, liver depression and blood stasis. (A) Identification of Salvia miltiorrhiza Bge, Pueraria lobata (Willd.) Ohwi, and Paeoniae rubra root, by TLC of the methanol extracts, the control solutions lacking the three drugs, and the standards tanshinone IIA, puerarin, paeoniflorin, on silica gel first with chloroform – methanol – water 70:25:2.5 to 5 cm and then with toluene – ethyl acetate 24:1 to 8 cm; detection by spraying with 5 % vanillin in sulfuric acid – ethanol 1:200 and heating at 105 ˚C until the zones are visible in white light and UV 365 nm. (B) Identification of Astragali Radix, Panax notoginseng (Burkill) F. H. Chen ex C. H.) and Radix Bupleuri, by TLC of the methanol extracts, the control solutions lacking the three drugs and the standards astragaloside lV, notoginsenoside R1 and saikosaponin A, on silica gel with butanol – ethyl acetate – water 4:3:5 to 17 cm, detection by spraying with 2 % ethanol p-dimethylaminobenzaldehyde solution - sulfuric acid 2:3 and heating at 80 ˚C until the zones are visible, evaluation in white light and at UV 365 nm. The method was successfully applyed to identify six major ingredients in Huangjia Ruangan granules on the same plate through multi-information obtained, and proved to be simple, fast, specific, reproducible, robust and well suitable for the purpose.

Food Res. Int. 147, 110455 (2021). HPTLC of extractable and non-extractable polyphenols in peels from different species of the Passifloraceae family on silica gel with ethyl acetate - toluene - formic acid - methanol 15:15:4:1. Detection by spraying with 10 % of sulfuric acid in methanol, followed by heating at 80 °C. Evaluation in UV light at 254 and 366 nm. Further analysis by direct analysis in real-time (DART)-high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) analysis. 

Food Chem. 357, 129135 (2021). HPTLC of cinnamon on silica gel with toluene - ethyl acetate - methanol 6:5:3. Nine detection modes were used: 1) white light illumination, 2) UV 366 nm, 3) UV 254 nm, and six different derivatization reagents applied by immersion: 4) primuline reagent (100 mg primuline, 20 mL water and 80 mL acetone), 5) p-anisaldehyde sulfuric acid reagent (1 mL methoxy benzaldehyde, 140 mL methanol, 16 mL acetic acid and 8 mL sulfuric acid), 6) vanillin sulfuric acid reagent (1 g vanillin, 80 mL ethanol and 0.8 mL sulfuric acid), 7) diphenylamine aniline o-phosphoric reagent (2 % each of diphenylamine and aniline in 100 mL isopropanol plus 20 mL o-phosphoric acid), 8) Fast Blue B salt reagent (100 mg Fast Blue B salt in 100 mL ethanol, 70 %) and 9) natural product reagent (1 g 2-aminoethyl diphenyl borate in 100 mL ethanol), followed by heating at 110 °C (5), 120 °C (4, 6) or 140 °C (7, 8) for 3-5 min. Effect-directed profiling was performed through eight different assays: HPTLC–Aliivibrio fischeri bioassay, HPTLC–Bacillus subtilis bioassay, HPTLC–tyrosinase inhibition assay and densitometric evaluation, HPTLC–α–glucosidase and β–glucosidase inhibition assays, HPTLC–AChE and BChE inhibition assays, HPTLC–DPPH assay. Compounds were further characterized by heated electrospray ionization high–resolution mass spectrometry (HESI–HRMS).

Food Chem. 343, 128400 (2020). HPTLC fingerprint of Citrus bergamia fruits from the islands of Kefalonia, Corfu and R. Calabria on silica gel with chloroform - methanol - water 13:9:3. Qualitative identification under UV light at 280 nm.

Food Chem. 362, 130132 (2021). HPTLC of betanin (1) and vulgaxanthin I (2) in beetroot (Beta vulgaris L. subsp. vulgaris) on RP-18 silica gel with water - acetonitrile -  trifluoroacetic acid 40:10:1. Quantitative determination by absorbance measurement at 535 nm for (1) and 484 nm for (2). The hRF values for (1) and (2) were 38 and 58, respectively.

J. Liq. Chromatogr. Relat. Technol. https://doi.org/10.1080/10826076.2021.1968429 (2021). Review of bioautography procedures of antimicrobial compounds in plants, including extraction of plant material, stationary and mobile phases in direct bioautography, chemical derivatization and biological detection of bioactive compounds and structure elucidation of bioactive bands. The paper also discussed new aspects of identification of biologically active substances in accordance with the principles of green analytical chemistry, and with special reference to substances with antimicrobial properties.

J. Liq. Chromatogr. Relat. Technol. https://doi.org/10.1080/10826076.2021.1932521 (2021). HPTLC of gallic acid in the stem bark of Schinus terebinthifolius on silica gel with toluene - ethyl acetate - formic acid - methanol 15:15:4:1. The plates were scanned at 254 nm and 366 nm. The hRF value for gallic acid was 43. Image features were acquired using a combination of two approaches: Haralick texture features and Zernike moments. The GNU OctaveVR software was used to set the architectures of the Artificial Neural Network. The mathematical data provided by the image analysis was correlated with the gallic acid content determined by HPLC. The method allowed the prediction of phenolic content through TLC plate images.