Estimating the Yield of Compounds on the TLC Plate via the Blue-LED Illumination Technique

Summary

The present protocol developed a method to estimate the yield of compounds on the TLC plate using the blue-LED illumination technique. The advantages of this approach are that it is safe, effective, inexpensive, and allows the researcher to measure multiple samples simultaneously.

Abstract

Thin-layer chromatography (TLC) is an accessible analytical technique that has been extensively used in organic chemistry research to quantify the yield of unknown samples. The present study developed an effective, cheap, and safe method to estimate the yield of samples on a TLC plate using the blue-LED illuminator. Lovastatin extracted from Aspergillus terreus was the example compound used in the present study. Regression models based on the lovastatin standard were used to evaluate the yield of lovastatin. Three methods were compared: bioassay, UV detection, and blue-LED illumination. The result showed that the blue-LED illumination method is significantly more time-effective than UV detection and bioassay methods. Additionally, the blue-LED illumination was a relatively safe option because of the concern of biological hazards in the bioassay method (e.g., microbial infection) and ultraviolet exposure in the UV detection method. Compared to the expensive methods requiring specialized instruments and long-term training before working independently, such as GC, HPLC, and HPTLC, using the blue-LED illuminator was an economical option to estimate the yield of samples from a TLC plate.

Introduction

Thin-layer chromatography (TLC) is widely used as a qualitative and quantitative technique in the field of organic chemistry^1,2,3. The main advantages of TLC are that it provides fast detection, flexible sample requirements, and does not require specialized equipment⁴. To date, even though many advanced approaches have been established, TLC is still the main method for identifying unknown samples in a mixture. However, the challenge of this approach is the lack of safe and inexpensive equipment for quantifying the sample yield, especially for developin....

Protocol

The present protocol is described using lovastatin as an example. Lovastatin was extracted from one-week-old Aspergillus terreus.

1. Compound extraction

NOTE: For details on compound extraction, please see Figure 1.

1. Culture Aspergillus terreus on the potato dextrose agar (PDA, see Table of Materials) medium at 30 °C.
2. Dry the culture at 40 °C for 24 .......

Discussion

The present study described a new approach, the blue-LED illuminator, to quantify compounds without using expensive and specialized equipment, such as HPTLC, HPLC, and GC method, and the method was compared with the bioassay and UV-detected methods to evaluate quantification performance. As a result, it was concluded that the blue-LED illumination method is a relatively safe and effective protocol used to quantify the yield of targeted compounds on the TLC plate.

Previous studies have reported.......

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
American bacteriological Agar	Condalab	1802.00
Aspergillus terreus		ATCC 20542
Blue-LED illuminator	MICROTEK	Bio-1000F
Centrifuge	Thermo Scientific	HERAEUS Megafuge 8
Compact UV lamp	UVP	UVGL-25
Ethyl Acetate	MACRON	MA-H078-10
Filter Paper 125mm	ADVANTEC	60311102
ImageJ	NIH	Freeware	https://imagej.nih.gov/ij/download.html
Lovastatin standard	ACROS	A0404262
MiBio Fluo	MICROTEK	V1.04
n-Hexane	C-ECHO	HH3102-000000-72EC
OriginPro	OriginLab	9.1	https://www.originlab.com/origin
Potato dextrose broth H	STBIO MEDIA	110533
Rotary evaporator	EYELA	SB-1000
Sulfuric acid	Fluka	30743-2.5L-GL
TLC silica gel 60 F254	MERCK	1.05554.0001
Trifluoroacetic acid	Alfa Aesar	10229873
Ultrasonic vibration machine	DELTA	DC600