Quantitative evaluation of Boerhavia diffusa and its commercial formulations with respect to its major bioactive marker, eupalitin galactoside, using high-performance thin-layer chromatography

Abstract

In view of extensive applications in the Indian Ayurvedic system of medicine and the increased demand for both as single ingredient and as a major component in multiherbal formulations of Boerhavia diffusa, a rapid, sensitive and reproducible high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) method has been developed for its quantitative evaluation with respect to its major bio-active marker, eupalitin galactoside. For the separation of the marker compound, HPTLC silica gel F254 pre-coated plates were used with n-butanol‒acetic acid‒water (8:1:1) as the mobile phase. The method was validated for limit of detection, limit of quantification, linearity, specificity, precession, and recovery. The results indicate that the bio-active marker was present in 0.075% in B. diffusa whole plant. Surprisingly, the marker compound could not be detected even in traces in two of the B. diffusa commercial formulations such as punarnava mandur and artin capsules, which contain more than ten herbal and herbo-mineral ingred...