Quantitative Determination of Berberine in Marketed Herbal Formulations by TLC Densitometry and their Hypoglycemic Effect

In the present time, a phenomenal increase in the demand for herbal medicine has been observed and a need has been felt for insuring the quality, safety and efficacy of herbal drug preparations. Standardisation is one of the tools for the assessment of quality, purity and efficacy which includes preliminary phytochemical screening, fingerprint profile using biomarkers corroborated with modern analytical techniques. HPTLC has established itself as an important tool for handling the qualitative, semi-quantitative and quantitative phytochemical analysis of herbal drugs and formulations due to its simplicity, flexibility, reliability and cost efficient separation. Four ayurvedic formulations Nimbadi Churna (Vyas Pharmaceuticals), Pushyanug Churna (Baidyanath Ayurved Bhavan), Khadirarishta (Sandu Pharmaceuticals Ltd.), Trifla Ghrita (AVS Kottakkal) have been selected in the present study. The use of these formulations varies from blood purification, bleeding disorders to eye related diseases. These also act as anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and anthelmintic agents. Berberine is one of the major constituents in all the selected formulations. The major therapeutic activity of berberine is for the treatment of infection and inflammation, however, the antidiabetic potential of berberine is also under scrutiny. In the present study, quantitative determination of berberine was carried out in all the formulations by TLC densitometric analysis. Further, the anti-diabetic activity of these formulations was evaluated by streptozotocin (STZ) induced rats using glimepiride and berberine as a standard drug. All the formulations at a dose level of 45 mg/kg showed significant hypoglycemic activity and formulation-III, showed better activity as compared to the standard drug. Hence these formulations can be used in the treatment of diabetes beyond their usual activities.