Comparison of high-performance liquid chromatographic and thin-layer chromatographic methods for determination of aloin in herbal products containing Aloe vera.

Aloe vera is a medicinal plant used worldwide to treat a variety of conditions and, as such, has important commercial value. Aloin is a principal component of aloe vera leaves and is used for quality control of products containing it. A semiquantitative thin-layer chromatographic (TLC) method for determining the concentration of aloin in aloe-based products was validated. The results were similar to those of a validated high-performance liquid chromatographic method; therefore, TLC, which is a simple, sensitive, specific, rapid, and cheap method, may be ideal for use in any laboratory for routine analysis of commercial products containing aloe vera.