Validated method for estimation of curcumin in turmeric powder

Abstract

Curcumin, the active molecule present in <i>Curcuma longa</i> is known for its antitumour, antioxidant, antiarthritic, anti-amyloid, anti-ischemic, anti-inflammatory activities. In addition, it may also be effective in treating malaria, prevention of cervical cancer, etc. An efficient, sensitive, and precise high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) method has been developed for determination of curcumin in several marketed spices sample of turmeric powder and has been compared with an in-house turmeric powder. The HPTLC separation was performed on precoated aluminium backed HPTLC plates of 0.2 mm layer thickness with silica gel 60 F₂₅₄ with dichloromethane and methanol (99:1) combination as mobile phase. The plate was developed up to 80 mm at temperature of 20 ± 4^oC with 10 min. of chamber saturation. Under this condition the retardation factor (R_f) of curcumin is 0.43 and the compound was quantified at its absorbance maxima (<img src='/image/spc_char/lamda.gif' border=0> _max) at 427 nm. The limit of detection and limit of quantification were found to be 49 ng and 148 ng per spot, respectively. The response of curcumin was linear over the range of 0.8 <img src='/image/spc_char/micro.gif' border=0> g to 1.3 <img src='/image/spc_char/micro.gif' border=0> g per spot with correlation coefficient 0.99395 indicates good relationship between peak area versus concentration. Recovery values from 99.60 to 99.73 % showed that the reliability and reproducibility of the method were excellent. The proposed method may be useful as an accurate, simple, cost effective and sensitive for quantitative estimation of curcumin.