Quantitative analysis of barakol content in Senna siamea leaves and flowers by TLC-densitometry

To develop a TLC-densitometric method for the determination of barakol content in Senna siamea leaf and flower extracts, and to compare the barakol content in mature leaves, young leaves and young flowers of the plant which are consumed as a vegetable in curry. The extraction of pure barakol was performed by boiling the fresh young leaves of S. siamea with 0.5% sulfuric acid followed by chloroform extraction. The extract was further purified and recrystallized from absolute ethanol. Authentic sample of barakol was used for the validation of the TLC-densitometric method. Chromatography was performed on a TLC aluminium plate precoated with silica gel 60 F[254] as a stationary phase and chloroform-methanol [85:15 v/v] as a solvent system. Fifteen percent ethanolic extracts of mature leaves, young leaves and flowers of S. siamea were analyzed and compared for barakol content using the validated TLC-densitometric method. Both the validation and analysis of barakol by TLC-densitometry were carried out at the absorbance mode of 366 nm. Barakol was extracted as pure lemon-yellow crystals from young S. siamea leaves with 0.1% yield. Linearity was found over the range of 200-900 ng/spot [r2 = 0.997]. The developed method gave high precision [%RSD < 0.50] and accuracy [average 101.12%]. The limit of detection and limit of quantitation were 8 and 50 ng, respectively. Barakol content in young leaves, mature leaves and young flowers were 1.67, 0.78 and 1.43% dry weight, respectively. R[f] value of the barakol in young leaves, young flowers and authentic sample was the same: 0.45 +/- 0.03. The TLC-densitometric method was simple, precise and convenient; hence it is an effective procedure for the simultaneous determination of barakol in plant extracts

Determination of berberine content in the stem extracts of cocinium fenestratum by TLC densitometry

To develop the optimal extraction procedure [i.e. maceration, percolation or Soxhlet extraction] and thin- layer chromatographic [TLC]-densitometric method for the determination of berberine content of Coscinium fenestratum. Maceration, percolation and Soxhlet extraction techniques were used to extract alkaloids from dried stems of C. fenestratum. The solvents used were 50 and 80% ethanol. Crude extracts and berberine content recovered from the TLC fingerprint were evaluated for chemical components of each extraction method. Precoated silica gel GF254 plates were used as stationary phase while butanol:glacial acetic acid:water [14:3:4] was used as a mobile phase. Detection and quantitation of berberine were performed by densitometry at the wavelength of 415 nm over the linearity range of 240-840 ng [r[2] = 0.9982]. The relative standard deviations from intraday and interday precisions were less than 4.13%. The recovery of standard berberine was 97.58-98.71% [%RSD = 3.85], and the limit of detection and quantitation were 25 and 50 ng/spot, respectively. Eighty percent ethanol gave a higher content of berberine than 50% ethanol. Berberine contents from maceration, percolation and Soxhlet extraction with 80% ethanol were 3.37 +/- 0.30, 3.08 +/- 0.38 and 2.67 +/- 0.27% w/w, respectively. The TLC-densitometric method was simple, accurate and precise for quantitating berberine in the stem extract of C. fenestratum. Maceration with 80% ethanol gave the highest content of berberine in the extract. TLC of the extracts from different methods showed a similar pattern