Greenness and Whiteness Profiles of HPTLC Method for the Assay of Vanillin in Commercial Food Products, Traditional, and Ultrasound-Based Extracts of Vanilla planifolia

There are no environmentally friendly or sustainable high-performance thin-layer chromatographic (HPTLC) techniques for identifying vanillin in the literature. Thus, the purpose of the present investigation was to establish and validate a sustainable reverse-phase HPTLC method for determining vanillin in commercial food products, methanolic extract (ME), and ultrasound-based extract (UBE) of Vanilla planifolia pods. The wavelength at which vanillin was identified was 315 nm. The sustainable development system was a 65:35 v/v binary mixture of ethanol and water. Eight different greenness and whiteness tools, such as “the analytical eco-scale (AES), chloroform toxicity (ChlorTox), the analytical GREEnness (AGREE), the modified green analytical procedure index (MoGAPI), the complex MoGAPI, the blue applicability grade index (BAGI), the carbon footprint reduction index (CaFRI), and the click analytical chemistry index (CACI)” were utilized to evaluate the method’s greenness and whiteness profiles. In the 10–1000 ng/band levels, the current vanillin analysis methodology demonstrated linearity. Additionally, the vanillin analysis methodology was sensitive (LOD: 3.50 ng/band and LOQ: 10.52 ng/band), robust, accurate (% recovery: 99.47–101.03), precise (% RSD: 0.61–0.89), and sustainable. The results of the greenness and whiteness tools, such as AES (93), ChlorTox (0.68 g), AGREE (0.75), MoGAPI (82), complex MoGAPI (88), BAGI (75), CaFRI (89), and CACI (86), demonstrated that the current method had excellent greenness and whiteness profiles. It was observed that commercial food products F1, F2, and F3 contained, respectively, 0.21, 0.24, and 0.02% w/w of vanillin. The amount of vanillin in the ME and UBE of V. planifolia pods was determined to be 0.25 and 0.32% w/w, respectively. According to the study’s findings, the current sustainable HPTLC technology can be used to regularly monitor vanillin in commercialized food products, ME, and UBE extracts of V. planifolia pods.