DEVELOPMENT OF QUALITY PARAMETERS AND DETERMINATION OF GLYCYRRHETINIC ACID AND PIPERINE CONTENT IN YASTIMADHUVATI

`Yastimadhuvati’ is a popular Ayurvedic formulation prescribed in cough, cold, respiratory diseases and chronic fever. The proposed study is aimed at developing physico-chemical parameters and estimating the contents of glycyrrhetinic acid and piperine in the formulation. Pills were prepared according to the Vaidyaka chikitsasar. The pills were subjected to pharmacognostical and phytochemical screening and evaluated for the standards visually, weight variation, friability and hardness tests. Further glycyrrhetinic acid was quantified by colorimetric method. Also a simultaneous HPTLC method was developed for quantification of glycyrrhetinic acid and piperine. The pills showed microscopical features like sclereids, crystal fibres, vittae, epidermis with subepidermis and oil glands. The acid insoluble ash was found to be 0.5 ± 0.61, Water soluble extractive value was higher than the alcohol soluble extractive value. The pills contained higher amounts of phenolics. The content of glycyrrhetinic acid was found to be almost same (0.4% w/w) when estimated by colorimetric and HPTLC methods. Piperine content was found to be 3.5%w/w using the same HPTLC method. The quality parameters developed for the Yastimadhuvati would serve as useful tool for gauging the quality and also the simultaneous HPTLC method developed for the estimation of glycyrrhetinic acid and piperine is simple and reproducible.