Development and Validation of HPTLC Method for Quantification of Solanesol in Various Parts of Nicotiana tabacum Collected from Different Geographical Regions of India

Solanesol is the starting material for many high value biochemicals, including Co-enzyme Q10 and vitamin-K analogues. The aim of the current study was to develop and validate a reliable and fast analytical procedure for the determination of solanesol in Nicotianatabacum using high-performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) method. The method was developed on TLC aluminium plates precoated with silica gel 60F-254 using solvent system hexane: ethyl acetate (5:1, v/v), which gives compact spot of solanesol (Rf value 0.41 ± 0.02). Densitometric analysis of solanesol was carried out in the absorbance mode at 210 nm. The linear regression analysis data for the calibration plot showed good linear relationship with r = 0.9978 with respect to peak area, in the concentration rang 100-5000 ng per spot of solanesol. The limit of detection and quantification were 13 and 30 ng per spot, respectively. The proposed method was applied for quantitative estimation of solanesol in different parts of Nicotianatabacum from different geographical regions in India, which showed that maximum amount of solanesol was found to be present in leaf sample collected from Karnataka i.e. 3.52 mg/g. Statistical analysis proved that the method is repeatable, selective and accurate for the estimation of solanesol in Nicotianatabacum.