Planta Med 2010; 76 - P32
DOI: 10.1055/s-0030-1251794

Quantitative Determination of Saponins in Terminalia chebula and Comparative Study of Terminalia species by High Performance Thin Layer Chromatography

CS Rumalla 1, B Avula 1, Z Ali 1, W Wang 1, TJ Smillie 1, IA Khan 1, 2
  • 1National Center for Natural Products Research, Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, The University of Mississippi, MS 38677, USA
  • 2Department of Pharmacognosy, School of Pharmacy, The University of Mississippi, MS 38677, USA

The fruits and bark of different species of Terminalia (Combretaceae) trees have been used since the Vedic period (1500–500 BC) for the treatment of various aliments [1]. Terminalia chebula Retz. is a native plant to India and Southeast Asia [2]. The medicinal properties of T. chebula have been known from anicent times and were described by Charaka in his text „Charaka samhita“ [3]. The friut powder of T. chebula is used in India to treat several diseases ranging from digestive, coronary disorders to allergic and infectious diseases such as cough and skin disorders.

A simple, precise and rapid high performance liquid chromatography (HPTLC) method was developed for the quantitative determination of four saponins (arjunglucoside-I (1), arjunetin (2), arjungenin (3), arjunolic acid (4)) from fruits T. chebula. The separation of these compounds was carried out on silica gel 60F254 elution with chloroform: methanol (8.2: 1.8 v/v) and detection wavelength at 600nm after spraying with anisaldehyde reagent. The developed method gave a good linear regression relationship between peak area and concentration was obtained for the six saponins mentioned above. The developed method can be applied to different species of Terminalia in order to discriminate between them.

Fig 1: Densitogram of (track A) Extract of T. chebula and (track B) Standard mix with increasing Rf (1–4).

Acknowledgements: This research is supported in part by Science Based Authentication of Dietary Supplements and Botanical Dietary Supplement Research funded by the Food and Drug Administration grant numbers 5U01FD002071–09 and 1U01FD003871–01, and the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Specific Cooperative Agreement No. 58–6408–2-0009. References: [1] Singh DV, Verma MM, et al. (2002) Phytochem Anal 13: 207–210. [2] Cheng HY, Lin TC, et al. (2003) Biol Pharm Bull 26: 1331–1335. [3] Gandhi NM, Nair CKK (2005) Mol Cellular Biochem 277: 43–48.