Standardisation Study of Kwatha Curnas

The present paper deals with the standardization of kwatha curnas such as dhanyapanchak kwatha curna, guduchyadigana kwatha curna and stanyajanankashaya curna. These are the important Ayurvedic formulations used for peri-natal care of mother and child health. Standardization of kwatha curnas were achieved by physico-chemical analysis, qualitative inorganic and organic analysis, thin layer chromatography (TLC), UVvisible spectrophotometry and high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) fingerprint studies. TLC study of kwatha curnas was carried out in Ethyl acetate: Methanol: Water solvent system. Ethanol extracts of kwatha curnas were used for UVvisible spectrophotometry and qualitative HPLC fingerprint study.


I Introduction ntroduction
Kwatha curnas are compound coarse powders, which are intended for usage whenever particular decoction is required.In the present paper, three-kwatha curnas viz., dhanyapachak kwatha curna, guduchyadigana kwatha curna and stanyajanana kashaya curna were selected for standardization study.These kwatha curnas are used for the perinatal care of mother and child health.Process standardization of kwatha curnas namely, arkadi kwatha, phalatrikadi kwatha and rasna saptaka kwatha curnas has been reported.According to the analytical data, TLC and organic qualitative analysis, the preparation by the second method (by individual powdering of ingredients and compounding them in required proportion to get the final product) revealed more active principles 1 .
The clinical study of dhanyapanchak kashaya curna showed that this herbal drug has beneficial effect on dyspeptic symptoms 2 .

Materials and Methods
The authentic ingredients were procured from the local market of Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh and were botanically identified.Dhanyapanchak kwatha curna, guduchyadigana kwatha curna and stanyajanana kashaya curna were prepared as per the procedure described in Ayurvedic Formulary of India 3&4 .

Analytical study
The prepared samples were analyzed for the parameters such as pH (1% aqueous), moisture content, total ash, acid insoluble ash, alcohol soluble extractive, water-soluble extractive, qualitative inorganic and organic analysis 5&6 .

Thin layer chromatography
TLC plates were prepared as per the procedure described by Stahl 7 .The 4% alcoholic extracts of the samples were prepared by soaking them for 18h in alcohol.Alcoholic extracts were filtered and about 100µl was loaded on the TLC plate and eluted in ethyl acetate: methanol: water (100:13.5:10)solvent system 8 .The plates were sprayed with vanillin-sulphuric acid reagent and the spots were detected after heating at 110°C for 30min.Rf value of each spot was calculated.

Sample preparation
The 4% alcoholic extracts of the samples were prepared by soaking them for 18h in alcohol.The extracts were filtered through Whatman filter paper number 1 using high-pressure vacuum pump.The samples were used for UV-visible spectrophotometric and HPLC fingerprint study.

UV-visible spectrophotometric analysis
The samples were scanned over a range of 200-800nm using ELICO (SL-159) UV-visible spectrophotometer equipped with quartz cuvettes of 10mm path length and UV-visible spectrasoft software.Alcohol was used as a reference.

HPLC analysis
A gradient HPLC (Shimadzu HPLC Class VP series) with two LC-10 AT VP pumps (Shimadzu), variable wavelength programmable photo diode array detector SPD-M10A VP (Shimadzu), CTO-10AS VP column oven (Shimadzu), SCL-10A VP system controller (Shimadzu) and reverse phase Luna 5µ C 18 (2) Phenomenex column (250mm X 4.6mm) was used.The HPLC system was equipped with software Class VP series version 6.1 (Shimadzu).The mobile phase components methanol: water were filtered through 0.2µ membrane filter before use and pumped from the solvent reservoir to the column at a flow rate of 1ml/min which yielded a column back pressure of 220 kgf/cm 2 .The column temperature was maintained at 27°C.20µl of sample was injected by using Rheodyne syringe (Model 7202, Hamilton).

Conclusion Conclusion
The analytical data, TLC, UV-visible spectrophotometric and HPLC fingerprint profiles evolved can be considered as viable parameters which will go a long way for prescribing a dependable standards to these preparations.

Table 1 .
Table-1.The data of qualitative inorganic and organic analysis of kwatha curnas is summarized in Table-2.The data of TLC study of kwatha curnas is summarized in Table-3.The UV-visible spectrophotometric data of kwatha curnas is tabulated in Table-4.Analytical data of kwatha curnas

Table 2 .
Qualitative inorganic and orgarinc analytical data of kwatha curnas