Densitometric simultaneous quantification of three naphthoquinones fromImpatiens balsaminaL. leaves by high-performance thin-layer chromatography

Impatiens balsamina belonging to family Balsaminaceae is commonly known as terda. The plant has extensive range of phytoconstituents like naphthoquinones, coumarins, glycosides, phenolic acids, flavonoids, anthocyanidins, and steroids which have effective antimicrobial, anti-anaphylaxis, anti-allergic, antipruritic, and anti-inflammatory activity. Potent naphthoquinones like lawsone, methylene-3,3′-bilawsone, and lawsone methyl ether which are present in the leaves of the plant that exhibits were proved to possess an intensive antitumor activity.Taking into account these ethnobotanical, nutritional, medicinal, and commercial values of I. balsamina, a simple, rapid, and sensitive high-performance thin-layer chromatography method for the quantification of three naphthoquinones was developed. The stationary phase used was HPTLC plates silica gel 60 F254 precoated plates (10 × 10 cm). N-butyl acetate.chloroform.glacial acetic acid (6:4:0.1) was used as mobile phase, detection at wavelength of 280 nm using Desaga scanner.The developed method was validated for linearity, accuracy, precision, and specificity. The limit of detection (LOD) for naphthoquinones was found to be 200 ng spot−1 whereas the limit of quantification (LOQ) for the same was found to be 600 ng spot−1. The method was found to be linear over the range 5 μg mL−1 to 15 μg mL−1 with coefficient of regression of 0.98900, 0.98652, and 0.94158 for lawsone, methylene-3,3′-bilawsone, and lawsone methyl ether, respectively. The result indicated that the developed high-performance thin-layer chromatographic (HPTLC) method can be successfully used for the quantitative estimation of naphthoquinones from I. balsamina.