A Simple, Cost-Effective, and Green HPTLC Method for the Estimation of Ascorbic Acid in Solvent and Ultrasound-Assisted Extracts of Phyllanthus emblica, Capsicum annuum, and Psidium guajava

Abstract

Greener analytical methodologies for the estimation of ascorbic acid (AA) are poorly reported in the literature. Furthermore, the green indexes of the literature’s analytical assays of AA estimation have not been assessed. As a consequence, the aim of this research is to invent and validate a simple, cost-effective, and green reverse-phase “high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC)” method for the estimating AA in the solvent extracts (SE) and ultrasound-assisted extracts (UAE) of Phyllanthus emblica, Psidium guajava, and Capsicum annuum. The greener mobile phase for AA estimation was a binary mixture of water and ethanol (70:30, v/v). At a wavelength of 265 nm, the detection of AA was carried out. The greener HPTLC technique was linear in the 25–1200 ng/band range. In addition, the method was simple, cost-effective, accurate, precise, robust, sensitive, and green. The amount of AA was highest in the SE and UAE of P. emblica compared to the SE and UAE of P. guajava and C. annuum. The amount of AA in the SE of P. emblica, P. guajava, and C. annuum was found to be 491.16, 168.91, and 144.30 mg/100 g, respectively. However, the amount of AA in the UAE of P. emblica, P. guajava, and C. annuum was found to be 673.02, 218.71, and 199.30 mg/100 g, respectively. Using the “analytical GREEnness (AGREE)” methodology, the greenness index for the developed method was calculated to be 0.88, showing that the developed method has an excellent green profile. When it came to extracting AA, the UAE method outperformed the SE method. These findings suggested that the developed method might be used to estimate the AA in a variety of vegetable crops, plant-based extracts, and commercial formulations. Furthermore, because of the use of greener solvent systems against the commonly utilized hazardous solvent systems for AA determination, this technique is also safe and sustainable.