Dear Friends

A fresh wind for TLC is blowing in China. A “Mobile Drug Testing Program” was created by the authorities to ensure safe use of drugs also in rural areas of the country and to enforce the corresponding law (p. 13). Planar chromatography is integral part of this program. The technique will be employed on site by 344 mobile laboratories.

In the last CBS issue we featured Altana Pharma AG. Also another important pharmaceutical company, Stada R&D GmbH, utilizes planar chromatography as a rapid and specific method (p. 5–7). The updated method presented by the Stada team illustrates the necessity of changing from antique TLC to modern Planar Chromatography.

Four AMD chambers are used in parallel for analysis of lipids by the team of Dr. Grether-Beck of the Institute of Environmental-Health Research at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf.

Simultaneous determination of 15 samples in duplicate within only 15 min stands out in the application by Dr. Jamshidi, Iran Polymer and Petrochemical Institute, Teheran (p.10–12). You have already noticed, the thematic focus of this CBS issue is high sample throughput.

This year a broad exchange on Planar Chromatography took place. Some of the European events are mentioned on page 9. Will you participate next year?

Sincerely yours,,
Gerda Morlock