Trends in analysis of vegetables by high performance TLC

Abstract High-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) is a widely used method that has increased the interest of researches in the las decades, being a fast and relatively inexpensive method of separating complex mixtures. With the high development of stationary phases and the possibility to be combined with accurate detection equipment, the technique is still increasing its uses in many research fields. Vegetables global consumption has been increasing over the years due to their health benefits, but unfortunately the presence of pesticides in vegetables has been also a growing concern. This study gives an overview of developed and validated HPTLC methods published after 2000 to assay different biological compounds and other derivate products found in vegetables. The focus will be on the bioactive compounds that are most abundant in vegetables, i.e. indole compounds, glycolipids, carotenoids, anthocyanins but also on pesticide residues that can be found in vegetables. Moreover, a very important trend, such as the combination between HPTLC and mass spectrometric detection (MS) or the introduction of new detection equipment will be presented. Graphical Abstract