High-Performance Thin-Layer Chromatography of Four Sterols in a Medicinally Important Grass Species – Heteropogon contortus (L.) Beauv.

Abstract

Presently, sterols like stigmasterol, β-sitosterol, campesterol, and ergosterol are identified and quantified from leaves, stem, and inflorescence of Heteropogon contortus. (L.) Beauv (family: Poaceae) from Rajasthan, India, using high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC). H. contortus is reported with various medicinal properties. In the present study, a HPTLC–densitometric method was developed for the quantification of sterols by using toluene‒methanol‒formic acid (9:1:0.3 v/v) as the mobile phase. Post-derivatization of the plates was done by using freshly prepared anisaldehyde–sulfuric acid, heated at 110–120°C and scanned at 530 nm absorbing wavelength. The maximum contents of stigmasterol, campesterol, and ergosterol were estimated in inflorescence extracts (11.64 ± 017, 19.90 ± 0.18, and 16.64 ± 0.81 mg g−1 of dry wt. w/w, respectively), whereas β-sitosterol was found maximum in leaves, i.e., 56.52 ± 1.25 mg g−1 of dry wt (w/w). This HPTLC method is found to be simple, precise, specific, s...