Phytochemical evaluation and validation of a polyherbal formulation using HPTLC

Raktadosh Nasak Vati is a polyherbal formulation used as antioxidant, antiseptic, antiallergic and to eliminate toxins from blood. It includes ten herbal ingredients and the major chemical compounds present are E-guggulsterone, Z-guggulsterone, berberine, curcumin, gallic acid and ellagic acid. Simple TLC densitometric methods have been developed for the quantification of these six marker compounds in the formulation using HPTLC. These six compounds were quantified and found to be 0.016 %, 0.015 %, 0.0017 %, 0.17 %, 0.485 % and 0.3 % (w/w) of E-guggulsterone, Z-guggulsterone, berberine, curcumin, gallic acid and ellagic acid respectively. The method was validated for instrumental precision, repeatability and accuracy. Accuracy of the methods was checked by recovery study conducted at three different levels and the average percentage recovery was found to be 100.58 % for E-guggulsterone, 100.24 % for Z-guggulsterone, 99.01 % for berberine, 99.57 % for curcumin, 99.9 % for gallic acid and 100.23 % for ellagic acid. The proposed TLC densitometric methods for the quantification of the above marker compounds were found to be simple, precise, specific, sensitive and accurate and can be used for the routine quality control of formulation and herbal raw material containing these marker compounds. They also have the applicability in quantifying any of these marker compounds in other drugs as well.