A highly sensitive and selective thin layer chromatographic (TLC) method was developed for simultaneous determination of catecholamines and their related drugs using a new detection method and digital image processing of chromatographic plates. For the quantitative evaluation of the investigated compounds, the chromatographic separation was followed by spraying the plate with 0.02% solution of 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH) in ethanol. The BioDit Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) Scanner device and advanced specific software (ImageDecipher-TLC, Sorbfil TLC Videodensitometer and JustTLC) were used for the detection and quantification of chromatographic spots. For an accurate determination, the RGB colored images of the bright-white spots detected against a purple background were inverted and processed after their conversion into green scale. The results showed a strongly linear correlation between area (R(2)>0.99) and volume (R(2)>0.99) of spots and concentration of investigated compounds in all cases. The limit of detection (LOD) and the limit of quantification (LOQ) were below 49.3 ng/spot and 69.6 ng/spot respectively in all cases. The evaluation of the method was performed using different pharmaceutical samples spiked with the investigated amines and validated with respect to accuracy and precision.
Keywords: Catecholamines; DPPH free radical; Digital image processing; RP-HPTLC.
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