Development and Validation of Selective High-Performance Liquid Chromatographic Method Using Photodiode Array Detection for Estimation of Aconitine in Polyherbal Ayurvedic Taila Preparations

Abstract

A simple, sensitive, and selective high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method has been developed and validated for the analysis of aconitine in marketed ayurvedic taila (oil) formulations containing roots of Aconitum chasmanthum . Chromatography of methanolic extracts of these formulations was performed on C 18 (5 μm × 25 cm × 4.6 mm i.d.) column using isocratic mobile phase consisting of (65 : 35% v/v) acetonitrile and buffer solution (aqueous 0.01 M ammonium bicarbonate buffer, adjusted to pH 9.6 using 30% ammonia solution) at a flow rate of 1 mL/min and SPD-10 A V P photodiode array (PDA) UV-Visible detector. The analytical reference, aconitine, was quantified at 238 nm. The retention time of aconitine was about 42.54 min. The linear regression analysis data for the calibration plot showed a good linear relationship with correlation coefficient of 0.9989 in the concentration range of 15 to 90 μg/mL for aconitine with respect to peak area. The limit of detection and limit of quantitation values were found to be 0.03 μg/mL and 0.1 μg/mL respectively. Repeatability of the method was found to be 0.551–1.689 RSD. Recovery values from 97.75 to 99.91% indicate excellent accuracy of the method. The developed HPLC method is accurate and precise and it can be successfully applied for the determination of aconitine in marketed ayurvedic oil formulations containing Aconitum chasmanthum .