Lipophilicity of Some Preservatives Estimated by RP-TLC Using Stationary Phases with Different Polarity

Lipophilcity of some preservatives was determined by reversed phase high performance thin layer chromatography (RP-HPTLC) using methanol–water mixtures in different volume proportions as mobile phase on three stationary phases of different polarity: RP-18F_254s, RP-18WF_254s and CNF_254s plates. The R _M values decreased linearly with increasing methanol concentration in the mobile phase in all cases. The regression determination coefficients obtained for all stationary phases were excellent (higher than 0.98 in most cases). The chromatographic behavior of the preservatives on the RP-HPTLC plates used in this study is similar and in a very good agreement with their polarity. Good chromatographic regularities found for retention factors and by applying principal component analysis for all three types of stationary phases indicate that the same lipophilic interactions are dominants in all cases. The relationships between different RP-HPTLC retention parameters (R _M0 , b, scores of R _F -PC1/R _F and scores of R _M -PC1/R _M ) and various calculated log P values of the same preservatives show highly significant correlations for all types of stationary phases.