A selective high performance liquid chromatographic method for estimation of catechin in ayurvedic Taila preparations.

A simple, sensitive, rapid and selective high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method has been developed and validated for the analysis of catechin in marketed Ayurvedic Taila (oil) formulations containing Acacia catechu. Chromatography of methanolic: 0.1% formic acid (7:3, v/v) extracts of these formulations was performed on C18 (5 μmx 25cm x 4.6mm i.d) column using isocratic mobile phase consisting of methanol: acetonitrile: water (40:15:45, v/v/v) containing 1.0% acetic acid at a flow rate of 0.5ml/min and SPD-10 AVP photodiode array (PDA) UV-Visible detector. The analytical marker, catechin, was quantified at 279 nm. The retention time of catechin was about 3.27 min. The linear regression analysis data for the calibration plot showed a good linear relationship with correlation coefficient of 0.9988 in the concentration range of 15 to 90 μg/ml for catechin with respect to peak area. The limit of detection and limit of quantitation values were found to be 0.5μg/ml and 1.7μg/ml respectively. Repeatability of the method was found to be 0.62 RSD. Recovery values from 99.73 to 100.22% indicate excellent accuracy of the method. The developed HPLC method is accurate, precise, and cost-effective, and it can be successfully applied for the determination of catechin in marketed ayurvedic oil formulations containing Acacia catechu.