“…15 ,16 In practice, the thin layer of material is spread on glass plates, activated, spotted with sample, placed in a saturated atmosphere of solvent, and treated with a solvent appropriate for either ascending or descending partition; further reversed-phase partition with a change in solvent is also possible. After partition, the location and identification of sample components may be made by reagent spray," and the sample component may be separated and measured quantitatively.Y The method is most rewarding if used in combination with gas-liquid chromatography, paper and column chromatography with radioactive tracers, and with derivative metbods.t": 18 Thin-layer chromatography is reportedly an easier method to handle than others of similar capability 19 ; complex structures (terpenes, lipids, phospholipids, sulfolipids, glycolipids, steroids, bile acids, vitamins, amines, amino acids, peptides, proteins, purines, carbohydrates, nucleosides, nucleotides, nucleic acids, barbiturates, alkaloids, insecticides, herbicides, pesticides, and many other compounds) may all be identified, often in minutes, whereas other chromatographic meth-ods may take hours or days. '6-2o Separations are much sharper than the fractionation obtained in paper or column chromatography.…”