Abstract :
Ayurvedic and other traditional forms of medicines require standardization to bring them at par with modern
molecular medicine. The present study is to use thin layer chromatographic technique to understand the presence
and variation of four important secondary metabolites namely, steroids, terpenoids, flavoniods and alkaloids in the
Ayurvedic preparation, Triphala churna and its constituent ingredients, namely, Terminalia bellerica, terminalia
chebula and Embelica officinalis. The TLC profiles of steroids, terpenoids, flavonoids and alkaloids indicated
different behaviour for only rinds, only seeds, their respective mixtures, whole fruits separately and their mixtures.
The results were compared with standards of each metabolite and also with market samples. It was observed that
alkaloids were almost similar in all the samples indicating their predominance in Triphala ingredients as well as
those of mixtures. Embelica officinalis was having more dominating and masking effect over the other two
constituents for all the four metabolites studied. It was also clear that most of the market samples indicated the
presence of whole fruits as their raw materials instead of the rinds alone, which needs to be addressed. From the
study it is clear that this methodology can be used as a cheap tool to estimate the presence of the constituents in
each sample and suggest this easy method for quality analysis of the samples before they come to market.
Key Words: TLC, Triphala churna, Terminalia bellerica, Terminalia chebula, Embelica officinalis, Rf,
standardization, Prednisolone, Quercetine, Caffine, Retinol.
Keyword :
TLC, Triphala churna, Terminalia bellerica, Terminalia chebula, Embelica officinalis, Rf, standardization, Prednisolone, Quercetine, Caffine, Retinol.