Evaluation of <em>Ayurvedic</em> compound formulations 6- <em>Panchkola Churna</em>

Abstract

Increasing public interest and acceptance of herbal drugs and natural therapies in both developing and developed countries has given rise to various forms of adulteration and substitution in the herbal formulations leading to consumers and manufacturers disappointment and in some instances fatal consequences. Standardization and quality evaluation is the process of preparing a set of standards or identical characteristics, constant parameters, definitive values that carry an assurance of quality, efficacy, safety and reproducibility of any single or compound herbal formulation. In the continuation of earlier studies on standardization of <em>Ayurvedic</em> herbal formulations four samples of <em>Panchkola Churna</em>, procured from different<em> Ayurvedic</em> pharmacies, were subjected to physicochemical analysis, HPTLC fingerprinting and botanical characterization, and compared using authentic ingredients as reference. The studies suggest that these parameters may, together, be used for quality evaluation and standardization of compound formulations and maintaining the quality, purity and efficacy of the studied formulation.