Marker Based Detection of Identity and Authenticity of Raw Herbal Drugs and Finished Ayurvedic Products for Quality Control and Standardization

The medicinal plants are not only the major resource of Ayurveda but also have extensive uses in all systems of medicines, nutraceuticals, natural dyes, insecticides, pesticides, cosmetics etc. In view of the wider acceptance of herbal drug based products and fast expanding global market, the quality of the raw materials used in herbal drugs assumes special significance particularly in the case of their therapeutic values. One of the major problems the herbal industry faces today is the scarcity of genuine herbs in required quantities and the consequent substitution/adulteration by easily available and spurious ones. The controversy and confusion in identification do exist in the market samples especially if the useful parts of the herbal drugs are plant parts like root, bark, stem, rhizome, heartwood etc. In such cases identification solely using taxomonic keys becomes impossible. In this backdrop, the Centre for Medicinal Plants Research of Kottakkal Arya Vaidya Sala, took initiatives for developing in house quality standards of raw herbal drug. A detailed study including diagnostic features of histology, phytochemical studies with marker compounds, finger-printing profile together with quantification of marker compound of the medicinal plants (raw herbal drugs) widely used in Ayurvedic medicine preparation is being carried out. Pharmacognostic and phytochemical marker features are stored in the database using a computerized Herb Authentication System, which can be retrieved for floor level checking. From the study of 250 raw herbal drugs, it is found that in the entire raw herb species studied, the cell inclusions, anatomy, the cell structure and active compounds are diagnostic in identification. For example, the scalloped torus of Cedrus deodara heart wood, westered pits and presence of pterostilbene in Pterocarpus marsupium and Pterocarpol in Pterocarpus santalinus heart wood, occurrence of antraquinones in the cortex of Psudarthria viscida root, presence of fatty crystals and malabaricanol in seeds of Myristica malabarica etc. These characteristics can be used as marker tools to distinguish the genuine raw herbal drugs and also the finished products. Preparing a database of the diagnostic figures as a standard for each raw herbal drug is highly useful for the quick and easiest way of checking the authenticity of raw herbal drugs. To ensure the quality and safety of prepared medicines, the authenticity and quality of the plant raw herbal drugs needs to be screened, inspected and documented carefully. The pharmacognostic study of herbs, spices and drug plants, involves microscopic evaluation of plant tissue in sectional and powdered form and the histological characteristics of these plants refer to the minute structure and arrangement of cells and tissue and that type of study is necessary so that authentic tissue samples can be easily and properly identified [1,2]. The authenticity and quality assessment of medicinal plants are usually checked by different methods such as macroscopic, organoleptic, microscopic and chemical techniques. Among these, histological, histochemical and phytochemical marker based inspection methods occupies a special place and it is trouble-free but very informative and effective [3]. The digitized marker based identification method is a highly useful tool to establish the purity of botanicals and to provide related quality control documentation within a short period of time and aid in overcoming some of the shortcomings of the conventional methods. Ample evidence is provided in the present paper to prove the authenticity of this device for standardization and quality control of raw herbal drugs used in Ayurvedic medicines.

Acknowledgements: We are thankful to Dorabji Tata Trust for their generous funding for the project work.

References: [1] Dickison WC (2000) Integrative Plant Anatomy, Harcourt Academic Press, New York. [2] Carlquist S (1988) Comparative Wood Anatomy. Systematics, ecological and evolutionary aspects of dicotyledons wood. Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg, Berlin. [3] Srivastava AK, Srivastava GN, Bagchi GD (1995) Cur. Res. on Med. and Aromatic Plants. 17: 24–47.