An autobiographic method based on the thin layer chromatogram was developed by using the chemical system that comprises p-Nitrophenyl butyrate and bromothymol blue for detecting the lipase inhibitor. Lipase inhibitory zones were visualized as blue spots against the greenish yellow background. This method could able to detect the well known lipase inhibitor, orlistat up to the concentration of 1 ng which is better than the earlier method. This method could also able to detect the lipase inhibition activities from the un-explored species of Streptomyces. The developed method can be used not only for the screening of unknown samples for the lipase inhibitors but also for the purification of the lipase inhibitors from the unknown samples. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.