Determination of ursolic acid in fractionated leaf extracts of Ocimum gratissimum Linn and in developed herbal hepatoprotective tablet by HPTLC

Abstract

BackgroundUrsolic acid was determined in dichloromethane and ethyl acetate fractions of methanolic extract of Ocimum gratissimum and in developed herbal hepatoprotective tablet by HPTLC method. MethodsHepatoprotective polyherbal formulation was prepared using five fractions of three plant extracts namely O. gratissimum, Butea monosperma and Bauhinia variegata. Among these three plants O. gratissimum contains ursolic acid. Chromatographic separation was performed on silica gel HPTLC plates with petroleum ether:ethyl acetate:acetone (8.2:1.8:0.1, v/v/v) as mobile phase. After drying, the plates were sprayed with 10% (v/v) ethanolic solution of sulfuric acid and heated to 120 °C for 3 min. Quantification was performed in absorbance/transmittance mode at a wavelength of 530 nm using a computer-controlled densitometer. ResultsThe presented method was validated for linearity 400–1200 (ng/spot), intraday precision % C.V. (0.58–1.97), and interday precision % C.V. (1.46–2.22). Correlation coefficient (r2 = 0.9960), detection limits as well as recovery values (97.5%–98.22%) were found to be satisfactory. ConclusionA good correlation was obtained among the standard, samples of polyherbal formulation and fractionated extract of O. gratissimum using HPTLC method.