Selective determination of aconitine in polyherbal oils containing Aconitum chasmanthum using high-performance thin-layer chromatography.

Many polyherbal oil formulations in traditional systems of medicine contain aconite root. This paper reports the development and validation of a simple, rapid, and sensitive HPTLC method for identification and quantification of aconitine from polyherbal oil formulations. Chromatography of methanolic extract of these formulations was performed on silica gel 60F254 aluminum-backed HPTLC plates with a 0.2 mm layer thickness. The plates were developed up to 85 mm with the binary mobile phase ethyl acetate-ethanol (7.5 + 2.5, v/v) at 22 +/- 2 degrees C with 20 min of chamber saturation. The system produced a compact band of the marker aconitine at an R(f) value of 0.33 that was quantified at its maximum absorbance of 238 nm. The LOD and LOQ values were found to be 20 and 70 ng/band, respectively. The linearity with respect to peak area was in the range of 300 to 1800 ng/band with an r of 0.9991. Polyherbal oil formulations were analyzed with reasonable accuracy, and no matrix interference was observed. The developed HPTLC method is accurate, precise, and cost-effective, and can be used for marker-based QA of polyherbal oil formulations containing Aconitum chasmanthum as one of the active ingredients.