Quantification of the main constituents of “sitopaladi churna—Ayurvedic multi-herbal preparation” using a validated high-performance thin-layer chromatography method

Sitopaladi churna is one of the Ayurvedic remedies for the treatment of cough, bronchial problems, and congestion in the upper respiratory system. It consists of herbs the Cinnamomum zeylanicum , Elettaria cardamomum , Piper longum , vanshlochan from Bambusa bambos , and cane sugar. A high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) method was developed for the quantification of piperine, cinnamaldehyde, and 1,8-cineole. The mobile phase was optimized to achieve proper separation between chromophoric and nonchromophoric chemical markers. The densitometric scanning was done at 307 nm for piperine and cinnamaldehyde and at 599 nm for 1,8-cineole after derivatization with 1% of vanillin‒sulfuric acid. The linearity range was 100–500 ng/band for piperine and cinnamaldehyde and 600–3000 ng/band for 1,8-cineole. The linear regression analysis data show a good linear relationship with correlation coefficient ( R ) ≥ 0.99 for all three selected chemical markers. The proposed method was fully validated according to analytical method guidelines. The results indicate that the proposed HPTLC method was found to be accurate, simple, and precise and can be used for the quantification of the mentioned markers in sitopaladi churna and other herbal formulations.