Abstract

Abies pindrow Royle (Himalayan Fir; Pinaceae) has been traditionally used in the treatment of various ailments and reported to contain cyclic polyols as major class of phytoconstituents. But no work has ever been carried out to standardize A. pindrow on the basis of cyclic polyols. Thus, it was considered worthwhile to determine quantitatively contents of main cyclic polyols, i.e., shikimic acid and pinitol in A. pindrow aerial parts using TLC densitometry. Shikimic acid and pinitol were resolved on TLC plates using solvent systems – chloroform:methanol:formic acid (14:6:1) and chloroform:methanol (3:2) respectively. The shikimic acid and pinitol were derivatized with anisaldehyde-sulphuric acid reagent and ammonical silver nitrate reagent respectively. The spots of shikimic acid and pinitol were visualized by heating derivatized plates. The plates were then scanned in TLC scanner at 500 nm. The contents of shikimic acid and pinitol were estimated to be 0.0511% and 0.0987% w/w, respectively, in A. pindrow aerial parts. The developed TLC densitometric methods for estimation of cyclic polyols in A. pindrow aerial parts were found to be precise, accurate and specific on the basis of validation parameters.