CHROMATOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS FOR DIOSGENIN†CONTENT IN ABUTILON INDICUM (L) SWEET

Objective: Chromatographic evaluation of steroidal saponin ‘diosgenin' from leaves of the medicinal plant by HPTLC.Methods: HPTLC analysis was performed with methanolic (MeOH) and ethanolic (EtOH) leaf extract of Abutilon indicum. HPTLC analysis was carried out with Toluene: ethyl acetate: formic acid [6:5:1, v/v/v] mobile phase and anisaldehyde-sulphuric acid reagent as spraying reagent for derivatization. Quantitative evaluation of diosgenin content in extracts was estimated using diosgenin standard curve (500-3000 ng/spot).Results: HPTLC plate scanned at 366 nm showed good resolution and band color after derivatization. The appearance of brown color spot on chromatograms confirmed the diosgenin content in samples and it was observed to be 0.4 and 0.11 % (w/w) in MeOH and EtOH extracts, respectively.Conclusions: A. indicum plant leaves are a good source of steroidal saponin diosgenin and can be used as an alternate natural source to synthesize herbal drugs to control human population, various tumor; oral contraceptives, sex hormones and other steroids. Further, the proposed HPTLC method is a faster, precise, accurate and cost effective, thus, help to the pharmaceutical companies for quantity, quality control and standardization of herbal formulations for routine analysis of diosgenin.Â