Abstract

Ayurvedic eye drops preparation contains aqueous extracts of different herbs. Ethnobotanical survey shows that plants used in Ayurvedic eye drops formulation are rich source of tannin and tannin like compounds. Antioxidant and antimicrobial properties of ayurvedic eye drops are attributed to the presence of tannins and tannin like compounds. Therefore in the present study an attempt has been made to determine the tannin content in some ayurvedic eye drops, by using Folin-Denis method. A blue colored complex is formed by using phosphotungustomolybdic acid. Estimation was done on UV/Vis spectrophotometer. The tannin content of all the three brands was found to be 420, 918 and 270.49 µg/ml. The results obtained are reproducible with coefficient of variation less than 1.0% . Hence the present approach can be used as one of the parameters for the standardization of ayurvedic eye drop preparations.