Quality control of marketed herbal products of Asparagus racemosus Willd. through high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) analysis

Asparagus racemosus Willd. is a valuable medicinal plant which is used all over the world. There are several marketed products of A. racemosus. The high demand for this herb has increased the risk of adulteration in its com-mercial products. The adulterated herbal products might pose serious ill effects on health. Therefore, it is necessary to check the quality of marketed products in terms of the presence of their major bioactive compounds. The present study aimed to carry out the qualitative and quantitative analysis of Shatavarin IV in marketed products of A. racemosus through a validated high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) method. Ten market-ed products were analysed and all of them had shown the presence of Shatavarin IV which was quantified. The identification and quantification were done by taking a standard Shatavarin IV as reference. The Shatavarin IV was detected at Rf 0.4 +/- 0.05 and showed maximum absorption at 425 nm. The Shatavarin IV was quantified using a 6-point calibration curve having a standard deviation of 3.89 % with an R2 value of 0.9968. The amount of Shatavarin IV varied between 1.47 +/- 0.25 to 2.69 +/- 0.51 mg/g on a dry weight basis which is a normal range in the raw plant materials. Thus, the present findings would be a simple, reliable and cost-effective method for the quali-ty determination of herbal products of A. racemosus. The developed HPTLC chromatograms would serve as a reference for the quality assessment of commercial products of A. racemosus in future.