Simple spectrophotometric methods for standardizing ayurvedic formulation

Traditional medicines are effective but the standardization of Ayurvedic formulations is essential in order to assess the quality of drugs, based on the concentration of their active principles. Department of AYUSH has given preliminary guidelines for standardizing these conventional formulations, for uniformity of batches in production of Ayurvedic formulation and it is necessary to develop methods for evaluation. The present work is an attempt to standardize asav-arishta, the traditional Ayurvedic formulation using simple, non-expensive spectrophotometric methods. The various parameters performed included total phenolics, total flavonoids, total alkaloids and total saponins, also included pH, sugar %, alcohol content and specific gravity. The results obtained may be considered as tools for assistance to the regulatory authorities, scientific organizations and manufacturers for developing standards.