Nowadays new marketed food forms are radically changing the utilisation of natural substances. To be validated, the new products, named botanicals for their prevalent plant origin, urgently require science and technology support, including adequate analytical tools. Botanicals need analytical devices tailored to plant biodiversity and phenotype complexity, as well as in accordance with the novel metabolomic approach.
High-performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) represents a new analytical tool in botanicals. Practical examples of HPTLC applications, derived from analyses of extracts of digestive plants, i.e., artichoke and lemon scent medicinal plant (balm mint, tangerine, lemon grass, lemon and lemon verbena), commonly used in foods, are discussed here in order to present information about the benefits of HPTLC, including when it should be used, its limits and its cross-compatibility with other analytical tools.