Determination and Quantification of Ferulic acid in Ferula asafoetida by a Validated HPTLC Method

Phenolic acids are a group of compounds categorized as plant secondary metabolites widely distributed in plant kingdom and which furnishes with a number of applications. The oleo gum resin obtained from Ferula asafoetida commonly known as ‘HING’ possess ferulic acid which is one of a phenolic acid as an ingredient with a potent pharmacological activity. In the present study an attempt has been made to develop an HPTLC method for the quantitative estimation of ferulic acid from Ferula asafoetida. The method employed TLC aluminum plates precoated with silica gel 60F254 as stationary phase. Linear ascending development with toluene-ethyl acetate-formic acid in the ratio 60:40:10 as mobile phases were performed at room temperature (25 ± 2)ºC in a twin trough chamber saturated with mobile phase vapour. The system was found to give a compact spot for ferulic acid (Rf value of 0.48 ± 0.02). The detection was carried out at a wavelength of 319 nm. Linear regression analysis of calibration plot showed good co-relation between peak area and concentration with a co-relation coefficient r2 = 0.989 in the range of 200 ng/spot – 700 ng/spot. The developed method was validated for various validation parameters such as linearity, precision, accuracy as recovery, specificity, detection and quantification limits. The developed HPTLC method can be employed as a quality control tool for checking the purity of asafoetida resin powder, commercially available asafoetida and formulations comprising of asafoetida.