Comparitive Pharmacognostical and Phytochemical Evaluation of Brihat and Laghu Gokshur.

ABSTRACT

Laghu Gokshur (Tribulus terrestris) and Brihat Gokshur (Pedalium murex) are well known drugs used in Ayurveda as diuretics. These are classified under mishrak varga as ‘Dashmoola’ in Ayurveda and in chemotaxonomy as Saponin glycosides. The objective of the work is to find out the diagnostic tool to identify the two varieties of Gokshur. The powder was studied for macroscopic, microscopic and physicochemical parameters. For HPTLC Stationary phase was Pre-coated silica gel GF 254 and mobile phase was Toluene Ethyl acetate Formic acid (721 v/v/v). The plate was scanned and quantified at 254 nm for Diosgenin.Results shows that microscopic characters like trichomes, stomata and crystals show some difference in the two varieties while physicochemical parameters show difference in extractive values. Phytochemical screening also shows similar findings. HPTLC analysis carried out using Diosgenin as reference standard revealed the presence of steroidal Saponin “Diosgenin”. Quantitative estimation for Saponins found marked variation in the two varieties, where Laghu gokshur had 16% of Saponins while Brihat gokshur had 13% Saponins. The study can be used as a diagnostic tool for identification of these two varieties of Gokshur.