Analytical Study for Evaluation of Effect of Conventional Primary Processing Techniques on Amalaki (Emblica Officinalis Gaertn)

Abstract

In Indian crude drug trade, standard protocols for primary processing of crude drugs are either not available or not followed by growers /collectors of crude drug. Still, most of the drugs are processed adopting conventional primary processing techniques which are area specific i.e., different method of primary processing is adopted in different areas. An analytical study was carried out with the aims of investigating the effect of two commonly used conventional processing methods on crude drug Amalaki. These methods are drying deseeded fruits without boiling (EWB) and drying deseeded fruits after boiling (EB). For the evaluation of effect of boiling on Emblica fruits, comparative pharmacognostical and phytochemical analysis of crude drug prepared by two different conventional methods was done. Study included High-Performance Thin Layer Chromatography (HPTLC) using gallic acid as a reference standard. The results of the study showed that boiling increased the leaching of water-soluble components like sugars, tannins, phenolics, oxalates, and ascorbic acid thus reducing the levels of some antinutritional components and also some beneficial biomolecules like ascorbic acid. Additionally, boiling enhanced extraction of flavonoids and free gallic acid probably due to hydrolytic degradation of bound tannins as confirmed by HPTLC fingerprinting. Both samples showed similar Rf values (0.451) which were very close to the gallic acid standard (0.454) indicating the preservation of the unique marker compound identity after processing. EB exhibited improved safety due to reduced oxalate content and improved bioavailability of some phenolic compounds whereas EWB preserved a wider range of phytoconstituents with high levels of ascorbic acid. The results of the study provide evidences necessitating need of standardized protocol for primary processing of crude drugs.