Method development for simultaneous detection of ferulic acid and vanillin using high-performance thin layer chromatography

Abstract Background A simple, accurate, and reliable high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) method was developed for separation and detection of ferulic acid and vanillin. Methods Separation of ferulic acid and vanillin was carried out on 20 × 10 cm thin layer chromatography (TLC) plates using mobile phase containing toluene/1, 4-dioxan/acetic acid in the ratio 9:2.5:0.4 ( v / v ). The FA and vanillin were scanned at 320 and 312 nm, respectively. Method was validated for linearity, accuracy, precision, robustness, limit of detection, limit of quantification, and specificity. Results Retention factor (Rf) obtained for ferulic acid and vanillin was 0.48 and 0.56, respectively. The correlation coefficients, 0.9975 and 0.9991 with an average recovery of 98.77% and 98.45% obtained for ferulic acid and vanillin respectively by this method were satisfactory. Conclusion The optimized method was found to be efficient, precise, accurate, specific, and economic. Therefore, the method would be useful for both qualitative and quantitative routine analysis in pharmaceutical, food industry, and research laboratories.