DETERMINATION OF LAWSONE CONTENT IN FRESH AND DRIED LEAVES OF LAWSONIA INERMIS LINN. AND ITS QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS BY HPTLC

The present study was carried out to determine the content of lawsone in fresh and dried leaves of L.inermis Linn. The measurement containing high lawsone content was proceeded for further investigation by making hydro-alcoholic extract of the chosen plant part and its phytochemical analysis was also performed. The test extract was further screened for quantitative estimation of lawsone content using high performance thin layer chromatography. The chromatograms were developed using toluene: ethyl acetate: formic acid (5.5: 4.0: 0.5) as solvent system. Dried leaves of L.inermis was found to be a better source of lawsone as compared to the fresh leaves. The fresh leaves of L. inermis had 5.3 mcg/ml lawsone content while in case of dried leaves, 6.9 mcg/ml lawsone content was observed. The chromatogram of hydroalcoholic extract of leaves of L. inermis showed the presence of 4.56 mcg/ml lawsone.