Pharmacophore an International Research Journal
There is increasing awareness and general acceptability of the use of herbal drugs in today’s medical prac-tice. Medicinal plants and their products provide an effective source of treatment for various health ail-ments. For their appropriate utilization correct identification, authentication and quality control are essen-tial, so as to ensure safety, efficacy and reproducibility in their therapeutic effect. Therefore, for the present study Swertia chirayita a well known herbal drug has been selected for its physicochemical and phyto-chemical standardization using Pharmacopoeial Guidelines. The parameters studied are ash values: total ash 2.40±0.00 (0.48)%, acid insoluble ash 0.49±0.00 (0.09)%, water soluble ash 3.12±0.00 (0.62)%, sul-phated ash 0.86±0.01 (0.17)%; moisture content 8.37±0.01 (0.83)%, loss on drying 8.69±0.01 (0.86)%; pH value at 1% solution is 5.49±0.00 and at 10% aqueous solution is 5.03 ±0.01; melting range 80-900C; solu-bility: water soluble extractive 5.89±0.32 (1.19)%, and alcohol soluble extractive 3.86±0.40 (0.75)%; bulk Density 0.67±0.01; Crude Fiber Content 4.80±0.07 (0.48)%, alkaloid content 11.53±0.15 (1.15) %. On phytochemical analysis it revealed the presence of alkaloids, carbohydrates, flavonoids, glycosides, phenols and proteins. Besides this determination of extractive values in different organic solvent, thin layer chroma-tography, fluorescence analysis of successive extract of powder drug, IR Spectral studies had also been done. As many parameters in this study provide one of the earliest data in standardization of Chirayita spe-cifically: IR Spectral study, Fluorescence analysis, Crude fibre content, alkaloid assay. This study will help in setting down Pharmacopoeial standards for future reference in determining the quality and purity of Swertia chirayita Linn.
