Médecine alternative et intégrative

Fingerprint Profile of Selected Ayurvedic Churnas/Preparations: An Overview

Abstract

Garg S, Mishra A and Gupta R

Ayurvedic formulations [such as solid dosage (vati, churna), semisolid (avaleha, ghritas), liquid (asava, arishta)] have numerous uses in Ayurveda. They effect or help to rectify the three doshas in the body, and restore homeostatic balance that builds up in the body’s digestive system and spreads to the tissues. Standardization and analysis of the chemical marker of the Ayurvedic and other poly herbal formulation has always been a concern. For Researchers, Standardization is the need of hour for the present era to set standards for maintaining the quality and efficacy of the herbal products. HPTLC offers major advantages over other conventional chromatographic techniques such as unsurpassed flexibility (esp. stationary and mobile phase), choice of detection wavelength, user friendly, rapid and cost effective/economical. The present study compiles the progress made on the development of optimized and validated HPTLC/HPLC method for the simultaneous estimation of markers in different ayurvedic churnas/ preparations. HPTLC/HPLC profile is quite helpful in setting up of standards. The present study is an attempt to compile the major studies carried out on Ayurvedic preparations like: Churnas, avaleha, asava, arishta, vati, rasa, taila, ghritas and herbal capsules etc. which may be of use to develop/compile the fingerprint profile for evaluating the purity & quality of ayurvedic formulations, thus helpful as a reference in developing pharmacopoeial standards.