Micro Thin-Layer Chromatography Fingerprints of Selected Basil Species and Their Chemometric Analysis.

The dried aerial parts of 12 plants of Ocimum spp. were extracted with the Soxhlet apparatus using dichloromethane and methanol as solvents. A micro-TLC system with silica and a normal-phase solvent system (propan-2-ol-n-heptane-formic acid) was used for the chemometric analysis of 12 selected basil methanolic extracts. Some indices of similarity (Pearson's correlation coefficient, determination coefficient, congruence coefficient, and Euclidean, Manhattan (city-block), Chebyshev, and Hausdorff distances) were calculated on the basis of thin-layer chromatograms using ImageJ software. Principal component analysis was also performed. The method allowed the comparison of the analyzed extracts and confirmed the identities of two selected unknown plants.