Standardization of Kankayan Vati: An Ayurvedic Polyherbal Formulation

Abstract

Ayurvedic formulations have reached extensive acceptability as therapeutic agents for several diseases. In order to have a good coordination between the quality of raw materials, in process materials and final products, it has become essential to develop reliable, specific and sensitive quality control methods using combination of classical and modern instrumental methods of analysis. Standardization of herbal formulation is essential in order to assess quality, purity, safety and efficacy of drugs. Kankayan Vati is an Ayurvedic formulation containing seventeen herbs and is official in Ayurvedic Formulary of India. It is used in the treatment of piles, bloating, intestinal worms etc. and also used to treat abdominal lumps, haemorrhoids and heart diseases. In the present work, an attempt has been made to develop method for standardization of Kankayan Vati. Ferulic acid in Ferula asafoetida and plumbagin in Plumbago zeylanica are active constituents in this formulation and can be considered as marker components. A new, simple, rapid and precise High Performance Thin Layer Chromatography (HPTLC) method was developed for standardization of Kankayan Vati by simultaneous quantification of marker constituents. The separation was carried out on TLC aluminium plate precoated with silica gel 60 F_254, using Toluene: Ethyl acetate: Formic acid (6.5:3.5:0.1 v/v/v) as mobile phase. The densitometric analysis of ferulic acid (0.32±0.03) and plumbagin (0.73±0.03) was carried at 281 nm. The proposed method has been validated as per ICH guidelines.