Physicochemical Investigation of Vidanga Berries

Herbal medicines are being used as a effective source for treatment of many diseases since ancient times. Embelin, is an active phytoconstituent obtained from fruits of Embelia tsjeriam cottam, commonly known as Vidanga. Vidanga consists of phytoconstituents which is used o cure various severe diseases. Thus there is a need to justify the Quality of the herbal drugs which are highly used nowadays. Standardization methods hence act as an tests performed to ensure the safety of health. Also the phytochemical investigation is performed to make the use of important chemical constituents to its fullest. In this work we have performed various evaluation tests as per Ayurvedic Pharmacopia which were found to be within the limits. An effort was made further to optimize the best extraction solvent. UV spectroscopic scanning was done from 200-400nm of which max was found to be 291nm with a good peak shape and height for chloroform. HPTLC studies revealed a better peak height for Touleneethyl acetate and better separation of constitutents at chloroformmethanol for chloroform solvent. Thus Chloroform was found to the best solvent for extraction of vidanga berries.