Parameters for Differentiation ofLeptadenia reticulatafrom Substitutes

Abstract

The plant drug Leptadenia reticulata (Retz.) Wright & Arn (Ayurvedic name Jivanti) is widely utilized as a restorative and tonic and reputedly either alone or in formulations as a remedy for treatment of diseases related to vision. Unfortunately, various plants belonging to different genus and of diversified morphological and anatomical structures are being used as L. reticulata in various parts of the India, as no standards or appropriate markers for differentiation of powdered materials have been available to date. In this study, a prototype procedure was designed to evolve physic-chemical and chromatographic standards that would differentiate marketed samples of L. reticulata from substitutes. β-carotene was detected in the aerial parts of the plant, and an analytical method was developed to estimate the amount of β-carotene in the plant extracts using high-performance thin-layer chromatography.