HPTLC Fingerprint of an ayurvedic combination- Panchavalkala

Abstract

Background: Panchavalkala is one of the most versatile ayurvedic combination of plants known for being used to reduce infections, inflammations and in wound healing and having a wide spectrum of medicinal uses. It has been formulated into various formulations like- Panchavalkala choorna, Lepa, Kashaya, kwatha, ointment, gel hand wash, decoction etc. It is It includes a group of five drugs- Ficus benghalensis L, Ficus racemosa L., Ficus religiosa L., Ficus lacor Buch. Ham, Thespesia populnea. WHO guidelines emphasises the need for modern and sophisticated modern instrumental method like HPTLC to standardize herbal materials. Aim and objective: To establish fingerprint profile of Panchavalkala combination and its individual drugs using HPTLC technique. Method: TLC method was developed for aqueous extract of individual drugs of Panchavalkala and Panchavalkala combination using solvent system- Toulene: ethyl acetate: methanol: formic acid (4:4:1:0.1). HPTLC fingerprinting was developed by scanning the chromatogram at 254, 366, 280 nm and at 250nm post derivatization using vanillin sulphuric acid. Results: The chromatograms were analyzed for number of peaks and common peaks in aqueous extract of individual drugs and Panchavalkala combination. HPTLC fingerprinting of all the individual extracts was established to identify them. The presence of common peaks found in individual extracts was confirmed in Panchavalkala combination, indicating that the developed HPTLC method can be successfully used to identify and standardize the combination. Conclusion: It can be concluded that HPTLC fingerprint analysis of Panchavalkala combination and its individual drugs can be used for Standardisation.