Application of temperature-controlled micro planar chromatography for separation and quantification of testosterone and its derivatives.

Temperature-controlled micro thin-layer chromatography (TLC) was applied for separation and quantification studies of testosterone and its derivatives including methyltestosterone, testosterone propionate, isobutyrate, phenylpropionate, isocaproate, enanthate and caprate. Chromatographic studies were performed on silica-, octadecylsilica- and aluminum-coated plates working inside a small thermostated horizontal chamber unit allowing one-dimensional and two-dimensional developing modes with an elution distance of 45 mm. Retention properties of steroids were investigated across a whole range of binary mixtures such as methanol/water, acetonitrile/water, methanol/dichloromethane and acetone/hexane (0-100% v/v). Moreover, the effect of temperature ranging from -20 to +60 degrees C under saturated and unsaturated chamber conditions was also investigated. Our results revealed that depending on the mobile phase polarity the separation system based on the low carbon load wettable with water RP18W plates may work as a normal-phase (NP) or reversed-phase (RP) chromatographic system. It has been also demonstrated that micro TLC equipment can be applied as a fast retention screening device as well as simple and robust quantitative tool for determination of testosterone residue containing testosterone derivatives in complex samples.