Characterisation and quantification of medium chain and long chain triglycerides and their in vitro digestion products, by HPTLC coupled with in situ densitometric analysis.

The development of new and simple high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) assays for the quantification of medium chain triglycerides (MCT, tricaprylin) and long chain triglycerides (LCT, triolein) and their lipolytic products, bile salts (BS) and phospholipids (PL) are described. Different classes of lipids (PL, BS, fatty acids, monoglycerides, diglycerides, and triglycerides) were separated on a single silica gel 60 HPTLC plate by Automated Multiple Development (AMD) methods using a Camag AMD 2. Post-chromatographic staining of long chain lipids (triolein, diolein, monoolein, and oleic acid), PL and BS with a solution of copper sulphate-phosphoric acid and medium chain lipids (tricaprylin, dicaprylin, monocaprylin, and caprylic acid) with a solution of ammonium molybdate-perchloric acid allowed visualisation of the lipids. Lipids were quantified by in situ spectrodensitometric measurements using a Camag TLC scanner 3. The intra- and inter-assay accuracy was between 83 and 115% and the assay was precise to within a CV of less than 20% over a range of 0.1-1 and 5-50 microg for long chain lipids and medium chain lipids, respectively. The methods have been employed to study the kinetics of triolein and tricaprylin lipolysis in an in vitro lipid digestion model commonly used to assess the digestibility of novel oral lipid-based formulations.