PHYSICO - CHEMICAL AND HPTLC STUDIES OF LIMONIA CRENULATA (ROOT)

Herbal medicines have gained popularity as potential therapeutic agents for the prevention and treatment of many diseases due to their high efficacy and low side effects. With increasing demand for safer drugs, attention has been drawn to the identity, purity and strength of the herbal medicines. Hence, there is a need for standardization and development of reliable quality protocols using modern techniques of analysis for the herbal drugs. In the present paper an attempt was made to lay down the pharmacopoeial standards of Limonia crenulata Roxb. (Root) based on its physico-chemical and HPTLC analysis. Determination of physico-chemical parameters such as total ash, acid insoluble ash, water and alcohol soluble extractive values and High-Performance Thin Layer Chromatography (HPTLC) studies of the chloroform extract of the plant material were carried out. The solvent system, Toluene: Ethyl acetate: Formic acid (5: 2: 0.1) efficiently resolved the components present in the crude extract. The physico-chemical and HPTLC studies on root of Limonia crenulata yielded a set of qualitative and quantitative parameters or standards that can serve as an important source of information to ascertain the identity and to determine the quality and purity of the plant material. These studies enable the identification of the plant material for future investigation and form an important aspect of drug studies.