IDENTIFICATION OF CORTICOSTEROID HORMONES BY THIN-LAYER CHROMATOGRAPHY

The corticosteroid hormones available on the European market may be id entified by thin layer chromatography on silica gel. The use of differ ent mobile phases, combined with detection by spraying with sulfuric a cid in alcohol and heating, enables identification on the basis both o f differences in R, and characteristic fluorescence at lambda = 365 nm . The salts are separated by development with 1-butanol - acetic acid - water (60 + 20 + 20, v/v). The alcohols, esters, and acetonides are identified by consecutive unidimensional development with two differen t mobile phases, dichloromethane - diethyl ether - methanol - water (7 7 + 15 + 8 + 1.2, v/v) followed by diethyl ether - toluene - n-butanol , saturated with water (80 + 15 + 5, v/v). Critical pairs with similar R(f) values, can be separated with acetic acid - carbon tetrachloride - n-heptane (40 + 30 + 30, v/v).