Abstract
Purpose: A variety of tested organic and inorganic adsorbents are available today specifically for thin-layer chromatography. The most commonly used is silica gel which is an inorganic adsorbent. Organic substances like cellulose, polyethylene are also used. All these are imported into Nigeria and are unhealthy for economic policies. Most commonly used adsorbent may not be easy to produce locally, but starch, which is a very common product, can be made very readily available. Method: Comparative tests were carried out on cassava, guinea corn and irish potato starches to evaluate and determine suitability as adsorbents for thin-layer chromatography. The starches were used in their natural forms and various modified forms:- formamide, paraffin-impregnated forms and derivatized forms so as to exhibit different properties using different solvent systems to separate different classes of compounds namely alkaloids, amine acids, lipids and steroids with silica gel as standard. Results: The results obtained have proved starch to be a suitable adsorbent both in its naturally occurring and modified forms. Good separations of amino acids and steroids were obtained on natural layers when compared with silica gel, while alkaloids on formamide-impregnated layers and lipids on paraffin-impregnated layers also gave encouraging results. The acetylated starch by suitable modification should produce good results. Conclusion: The suitability of natural starches and its modifications as adsorbents for TLC has thus been established and seems very promising for future use. Keywords: Starch, cassava, guinea corn, Irish potato, adsorbent, thin-layer chromatography. > Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research Vol. 4 (1) 2005: pp. 331-339
Highlights
Starches are very popular in the pharmaceutical industry in which they are used as binders and disintergrants in tableting
Several nonpharmaceutical starches have been investigated as tableting excipients with positive results. [1,2,3,4,5,6] Many stages in the preparation of pharmaceutical products ranging from the detection and isolation of trace amounts of naturally occurring or synthetic compounds to the large scale production of medicinal agents require some form of separation and purification.[7]. Chromatography is a term which refers to a number of highly efficient separation techniques based on one of a number of principles: adsorption,partition,ion-exchange or exclusion
Castor oil and Cod liver oil did not move from the origin, they moved to the solvent front with non-polar solvent systems except in Guinea corn starch layers when Chloroform : petroleum ether
Summary
Starches are very popular in the pharmaceutical industry in which they are used as binders and disintergrants in tableting. Several nonpharmaceutical starches have been investigated as tableting excipients with positive results. [1,2,3,4,5,6] Many stages in the preparation of pharmaceutical products ranging from the detection and isolation of trace amounts of naturally occurring or synthetic compounds to the large scale production of medicinal agents require some form of separation and purification.[7] Chromatography is a term which refers to a number of highly efficient separation techniques based on one of a number of principles: adsorption,partition,ion-exchange or exclusion. Chromatography is used to compare substances by the use of certain values referred to as Rf-values [8]
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