DEVELOPMENT OF RP-HPLC METHOD FOR DETERMINATION OF URSOLIC ACID IN THE LEAF EXTACTS OF ALSTONIA SCHOLARIS, OCIMUM SANCTUM AND MENTHA PIPERATA

Ursolic acid is a pentacyclic triterpenoid compound which naturally occurs in a large number of vegetarian foods, medicinal herbs, and other plants. A simple, specific, accurate and precise HPLC method has been developed and validated for estimation of ursolic acid in three herbal extracts. Ursolic acid was estimated on a Grace smart RP C18 (5 μm; 25cm X 4.6 mm i.d.) using methanol: water: orthophosphoric acid (35:65:0.05, v/v) as the mobile phase and the detection was carried out 210 nm. The retention time was found to be 7.15 min. The linearity obtained at this detection wavelength was 25–475 μg/mL for ursolic acid. The limit of detection and limit of quantitation was found to be 6 and 25µg/mL, respectively, for ursolic acid. The co-relation and co-efficient for the calibration curve of ursolic acid was found to be 0.999. The developed method was used for separation and estimation of ursolic acid from 3 different herbal extracts (Alstonia scholaris, Ocimum sanctum, Mentha piperata). The estimated value of ursolic acid from herbal extracts of Alstonia scholaris, Ocimum sanctum and Mentha piperata was 1.87% w/w, 0.278% w/w and 0.575% w/w, respectively.