ESTIMATION OF SCOPOLETIN CONTENT IN COMMERCIALLY EXTRACTED LEAVES OF MEDICINAL HERB ARTEMISIA ANNUA L. USING HPTLC

Plants have a long history as therapeutic tools in the treatment of human diseases and have been used as a source of medicines for ages. In search of new biologically active natural products, many plants and herbs used in traditional medicine are screened for natural products with pharmacological activity. Qinghao is a traditional Chinese medicine prepared from the aerial parts of Artemisia annua L. which belongs to Compositae family. It is used as an anti-parasitic and fever relieving agent. Artemisinin was isolated from Qinghao as a major bioactive constituent and has been used to treat malaria. Besides artemisinin, the chemical constituents of Qinghao include volatile oil, terpenes, flavonoids, and coumarins. Scopoletin-derived sesquiterpene ethers Sesquiterpene derivatives of 7-hydroxy-6-methoxycoumarin (Scopoletin) are not so common. The aim of the study was to investigate chemical constituents present in the leaves of Artemisia annua after the commercial extraction process of the plant for artemisinin. From the preliminary studies, the compound identified was found to be a coumarin- Scopoletin. The residual leaves were used for the extraction of Scopoletin. The study estimated Scopoletin using thin-layer chromatography (TLC). The Scopoletin content of the leaves was calculated from the area calibration curve by this method was found to be 0.04477% w/w (plant dry weight basis). This HP-TLC procedure may be used effectively for identity, quality evaluation as well as quantitative determination for this plant or its derived products.