VALIDATED HPTLC ANALYSIS METHOD FOR QUANTIFICATION OF THYMOL CONTENT IN TRACHYSPERMUM AMMI AND POLYHERBAL UNANI FORMULATION ARQ ZEERA Research Article

A new, simple, sensitive, precise and accurate stability-indicating high-performance thin layer chromatographic (HPTLC) method was developed for the quantification of thymol in herbal extract (Trachyspermum ammi), prepared authentic formulations (PAF) and marketed formulation (MF) Arq Zeera and validated as per ICH guidelines. Analysis of thymol was performed on TLC aluminium plates pre-coated with silica gel 60 F 254 as stationary phase. Linear ascending development was carried out in twin trough glass chamber saturated with toluene: ethyl acetate (9: 3 v/v) at room temperature (25 ± 2 °C). Photodensitometric analysis was performed by UV-visible absorbance at 513 nm after spraying with vanillin sulphuric acid. The thymol content was found to be 2.1 % w/w, 0.784 % w/w, and 0.167 % w/w, in Trachyspermum ammi, prepared authentic formulations and marketed formulation Arq Zeera respectively. This system was found to have compact spot of thymol at R f value of 0.72 ± 0.02. For the proposed procedure, linearity (r2