A quantitative peptide structure vs. retention relationship study.
The quantitative relationship between the TLC retention parameters of 28 short peptides and their physicochemical characteristics was calculated using linear regression analysis. It was established that surface parameters exert a significant impact on the retention of peptides and the ratio of non-polar surface area/polar surface area exerts the highest influence on the retention. This result may be due to the fact that peptides turn towards the apolar surface of the stationary phase with their non-polar substructures while the polar molecular parts point into the hydrophilic mobile phase.