Dear Ms. Joy,

It all depends. How was your sample extracted? If you extracted with hexanes, then you only have the lipophilic compounds in your sample. That means that you want a non-polar solvent. If you extracted with water, then you need a polar solvent. Under any circumstances, you will find that rarely do you get good TLC results from a single solvent. Invariably, some compounds will stick at the origin and others will move with the front. That is why it is better to use multiple solvents to get the most information.

I hope that this helps.

Hi,

We have a system which has been established in our lab comprising of solvent systems ranging from polar (Ethyl acetate: Methanol: water) to intermediate polarity (Chloroform: Ethyl acetate: formic acid ) to non-polar (Benzene: Ethanol: Ammonia).

These systems are widely used.

Dear Joy

      I will recommend   ethyl acetate: Methanol: water in different ratio. It also depends on what type of compounds are present in your extract.

Hi, in addition of the comments above, I think you can search in the Camag TLC data Base the possible system for your plant extracts

http://www.camag.com/en/tlc_hptlc/customer_magazine_cbs/ccbs_database.cfm?method=query

As mentioned above it depends on what you are looking for. See the following links:

https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/chemistry/5-301-chemistry-laboratory-techniques-january-iap-2012/labs/MIT5_301IAP12_TLC_Handout.pdf

http://www.scielo.br/pdf/rbb/v30n1/a17v30n1

hi Joe Olechno, thanks for your contribution. I used methanol for extraction (cold maceration).