HPTLC Equipment Added to Quality Control Lab

In compliance with cGMPs, Starwest now uses HPTLC testing, which is an essential tool to efficiently and accurately determine the product identity and purity of botanicals. By comparing the distribution patterns of marker compounds in different solvent systems (unique to each plant and class of actives) against our proprietary Botanical Reference library, our Quality Control laboratory personnel can confidently and accurately verify product identity and identify known adulterates. HPTLC is fully reproducible and a standardized cGMP-compliant technique, known to deliver reliable and consistent results each time.

HPTLC delivers a chromatographic fingerprint of the sample in its entirety, a feature that makes this method ideal for the analysis of raw plant samples, botanical products and other herbal preparations. The fingerprint of botanically authenticated raw material serves as a primary reference (from our Botanical Reference library) against which unknown materials and adulterates can be distinguished. Both the sample and reference material are chromatographed side by side on the same plate, which is an analytical technique to discover components. The resulting fingerprints are then compared to determine product identity and purity.

High-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) has established itself as the method of choice and is widely accepted as the preferred method for identifying complex products such as botanicals and dietary supplements.