ABSTRACT
Thin-layer chromatography (TLC) is a frequently used laboratory technique in the field of antibiotic separation, purification, and quantitation. The technique is inherently simple and relatively inexpensive and requires little time. It was initially used in the separation of natural products, like lipids, steroids, and nucleic acids, but has been subsequently well adapted by chemists in laboratories dealing with antibiotic fermentations, purifications, or identifications. Since numerous reviews on TLC techniques are thoroughly covered in the literature [1–5] and TLC systems for most antibiotics are also well reported [6–8], this chapter only briefly describes general TLC techniques and selected antibiotic chromatographic systems. However, since high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) seems to have taken the place of TLC especially in quantitation, we will also briefly discuss the transferability of TLC data to HPLC systems.
