Characterization Of Herbal Medicines Research Articles

Review on standardization of herbal drug and formulation

Herbal drug technology is used for converting botanical materials into medicines, where Standardization is an important step for the establishment of a consistent biological activity, a consistent chemical profile, or simply a quality assurance program for production and manufacturing of herbal drugs. In below we are studying various WHO specific guidelines for the assessment of the safety, efficacy and quality of herbal medicines as a prerequisite for global harmonization are of outmost importance. An the overview covering various techniques employed in extraction and characterization of herbal medicines as well as herbal Nano medicines standardization is reported.

Physical and chemical characteristics of Maytenus rigida in different particle sizes using SEM/EDS, TG/DTA and pyrolysis GC–MS

Thermoanalytical techniques have been widely applied in the characterization of herbal medicines, providing data about the herbal products quality. The objective of this work was to use analytical techniques for the Maytenus rigida powder in different particle sizes characterization. The techniques used were scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy-dispersive spectroscopy, differential thermal analysis (DTA), Thermogravimetry (TG), using the model of Ozawa to evaluate the kinetic parameters and gas chromatography coupled to pyrolysis/mass spectrometry (PYR-GC/MS). Different particle morphologies and size were verified by SEM. The thermoanalytical techniques (TG and DTA) showed physical and chemical processes occurred. Different degradation profiles curves were obtained when the samples were exposed to the atmosphere of nitrogen and synthetic air. Kinetic data showed different activation energy values and the same reaction order to the studied samples. Through Ozawa kinetic parameters, it was possible to observe granulometries distinctions to the herbal medicine powder batches. Pyrolysis allowed to correlate TG decomposition data with the identification of its degradation products and showed two similar compounds among the samples at lower temperatures (250 °C) and at higher temperatures (600 °C). The fingerprint of the degradation components by PYR-GC–MS and the other analytical tools has been utilized as an alternative to the quality control of herbal medicine evaluation. Ea obtained by dynamic TG in air synthetic atmosphere was the parameter which better differentiate the samples.

Characterization of herbal medicine with different particle sizes using pyrolysis GC/MS, SEM, and thermal techniques

Analytical techniques have been used to characterize compounds from herbal medicine, its products and extracts. The objective of this study was to characterize a variety of particle sizes of Erythrina velutina Willd powder. The samples used in the study were named MUF01 (710 μm), MUF03 (180 μm) and MUF05 (75 μm). The techniques employed were scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermal analysis such as thermogravimetry (TG) and differential thermal analysis (DTA) together with pyrolysis coupled to gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Pyr-GC/MS). SEM enabled us to detect the existence of divergences from the expected results from the granulometry process. Thermal analytical techniques (TG and DTA) showed the thermal decomposition profile, corresponding to physical and chemical phenomena. The chromatographic data relative to the peak area of the compounds analyzed evidenced quantitative differences in the chemical compositions of the samples MUF01, MUF03, and MUF05 at 300, 450 and 600 °C. Neophytadiene 2,6,10-trimethyl, 14 and 3-eicosyne were identified by Pyr-GC/MS at 300, 450 and 600 °C, and it classified the samples according the peak area values, which were MUF05 > MUF03 > MUF01. SEM, DTA and TG confirmed this through particle size uniformity, heat flow, and mass loss, respectively.

Pharmacokinetic behavior of gentiopicroside from decoction of radix gentianae, gentiana macrophylla after oral administration in rats: A pharmacokinetic comaprison with gentiopicroside after oral and intravenous administration alone

The pharmacokinetics in rats of gentiopicroside (GPS) from orally administered decoctions of Radix Gentianae (DRG) and Gentiana macrophlla (DGM) were compared with that of GPS alone administered at 150 mg/kg orally and 30 mg/kg intravenously. The metabolic profile of GPS after intravenous injection could be fitted to two-compartment model whereas oral administration decoctions DRG or DGM, or GPS alone, could all be fitted to a one-compartment model. After oral administration of GPS alone, GPS was absorbed quickly and reached a maximum plasma concentration (Cmax) value, 5.78 +/- 2.24 microg/mL within 0.75 +/- 0.62 h. The plasma level of GPS declined with a T1/2ke, 3.35 +/- 0.76 h. After oral administration of decoctions DRG and DGM, GPS was absorbed and reached significantly higher maximum concentrations of 10.53 +/- 3.20 microg/mL (p < 0.01) and 7.43 +/- 1.64 microg/mL (p < 0.05) at later time points 1.60 +/- 0.76 (p < 0.01) and 2.08 +/- 0.74 h (p < 0.05), for DRG and DGM respectively, compared with oral GPS alone. Significantly larger AUC values were found for decoctions of GPS (83.49 +/- 20.8 microgxh/mL for DRG and 59.43 +/- 12.9 microgxh/mL for DGM) compared with oral GPS alone (32.67 +/- 12.9 microgxh/mL). The results demonstrate that the bioavailability of GPS was markedly improved when administered as a decoction than as purified GPS. The decoction from Radix Gentianae provided 2.5 times better bioavailability and that from Gentiana macrophlla 1.8 times higher. The study confirms the importance of careful pharmacokinetic analysis in the characterization of herbal medicines when applied for future clinical applications.