Phytochemical and pharmacognostical study of Cimicifuga racemosa L. Nutt. and standardization of plant raw material and homoeopathic mother tincture on its basis

Cimicifuga racemosa L. Nutt. has a long history of usage as a herbal dietary supplement, medical product as well as homeopathical remedy in the Russian market and throughout the world indicated to women as a remedy for the symptoms of menopause and other gynecological disorders [1–3]. The Russian normative base on production and quality control of Cimicifuga racemosa introduced in Russia and its pharmaceutical forms is absent. Additionally, problems of production and standardization of mother tincture are not solved. The aim of this work was the phytochemical and pharmacognostical study of rhizomes and roots of Cimicifuga racemosa and of the mother tincture on the basis of this plant material and development of Russian State Monographs. Applied methods included study of anatomical characteristics by methods of Russian State Pharmacopoeia XI, HPLC-UV, TLC and UV spectroscopy. Results revealed anatomic characteristic features of the plant raw material as well as phytochemical composition of the main secondary metabolites. A new method of qualitative identification of triterpenoids is developed by means of TLC analysis with the use of 27-deoxyactein as an internal standard. Isoferulic acid was chosen as a chemical marker of the plant and the method of quantitative determination is developed. To conclude, draft documents of Russian State Monographs on fresh rhizomes and roots of Cimicifuga racemosa introduced in Russia and Cimicifuga mother tincture are developed and submitted to Russian State Institute of Standardization and Quality Control of Medical Products.

Acknowledgements: Research-and-production pharmaceutical company Materia Medica, Russia.

References: 1. Ju, Y.H. et al. (2008) Food Chem. Toxicol. 46:310–20.

2. Burdette, J.E. et al. (2003)J Agric. Food Chem. 51:5661–70.

3. Obolskiy, D.M. et al. (2007) Pharamacy 1:52–56.