Development of a thin-layer chromatographic method for detection of lipstatin produced by Streptomyces toxytricini

Lipstatin or its saturated analog (orlistat), being the irreversible inhibitor of intestinal lipase, is widely used for the treatment of obesity. The bacterium Streptomyces toxytricini is the main source for the production of lipstatin/orlistat. There are continuous attempts to increase the production of lipstatin in S. toxytricini. For optimization of best conditions/strains for lipstatin production, there are requirements for a fast, simple, and reliable method to detect/estimate lipstatin. At present, highly sophisticated methods such as high-performance liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry, and so forth are available for the detection and estimation of lipstatin/orlistat. These methods are very costly, time-consuming, and require state of the art facility. Here we report a simple, fast, cost-effective method based on thin-layer chromatography for the detection of lipstatin in S. toxytricini. The optimized mobile phase was acetone: ethanol in a ratio of 3:7. Development of thin-layer chromatography was done by rho-anisaldehyde staining that showed the pink color to the silica plate and greenish-blue color to the lipstatin/orlistat drug. Conclusively, here we mention a simple and reproducible method of detection of orlistat and lipstatin samples extracted from S. toxytricini.

Automated summary

Lipstatin or orlistat is widely used for obesity treatment as an irreversible inhibitor of intestinal lipase. Detection and estimation of lipstatin/orlistat can be done using sophisticated methods, but they are expensive and time-consuming. Here, we present a simple and cost-effective method based on thin-layer chromatography for the detection of lipstatin in Streptomyces toxytricini.