ASSIMILATION OF CURCUMINOIDS FROM CURCUMA LONGA BY IR, UV AND TLC BY USING DIFFERENT SOLVENT SYSTEMS

Curcuminoids natural yellow pigments, the principle constituents of Curcuma longa of zingiberaceae family comprise of curcumin, demethoxycurcumin and bis-demethoxycurcumin. These curcuminoids vary from each other in chemical structures and physico-chemical characteristics. Of all the three curcuminoids curcumin was more partly responsible for the yellow colour of turmeric and also for the biological activity of the herbal plant. The present study was aimed for the qualitative identification and separation of curcuminoids from C.longa by various analytical methods. The drug Curcumin was characterized by spectroscopic methods like IR, UV and Thin layer chromatographic studies. The TLC studies performed with various solvents of different polarities were pre-tested for the separation of curcumin. The solvent system dichloromethane: chloroform: ethyl acetate (0.5:8:1.5v/v) with Rf value for API was 0.690, 0.687, 0.682 and for capsule was 0.690, 0.686, 0.681 showed better resolution for the three curcuminoids curcumin, demethoxycurcumin and bisdemethoxycurcumin respectively. A Reverse phase UFLC method developed using the mobile phase methanol showed retentions times of 0.888 and 0.887 for both the API and ayurvedic formulation.