Pharmaceutical Standardization of Palasha Kshara (Alkali Extract of Butea monosperma Lam.) Prepared from Two Combinations

Introduction: Standardization in herbal pharmaceuticals is needed in order to ensure their quality and acceptability of final medicament prepared from them. There are many plants have been suggested in the compendia for Kshara (alkali extract) preparation. Acharya Bhavamishra coined the name of plant Palasha (Butea monosperma Lam.) as Kshara Shresta means the one which is best of all Kshara. Generally all parts of plant together (Panchanga) have been suggested to be used for Kshara preparation in the texts. But considering the unavailability of all parts of the Palasha throughout the year this study has been designed to standardize the Palasha Kshara prepared from two combinations.

Aim and Objectives: Pharmaceutical and analytical standardization of Palasha Kshara PK-1 and PK-2 prepared from two combinations.

PK-1 is the Palasha Kshara prepared from combination of ashes of roots, stems, leaves, flowers and fruits.

PK-2 is the Palasha Kshara prepared from combination of ashes of roots, stems and leaves.

Observation and Results: The total yield percentage of PK-1 and PK-2 were 20.757% and 4.067% respectively. Both PK-1 and PK-2 were found alkaline in nature having ph value of 10.44 and 10.47 respectively. The ICPAES study of both PK-1 and PK-2 reveals maximum amount of potassium in them (41.65% and 47.51% respectively.) Heavy metals such as arsenic, lead, mercury, and cadmium were not detected or were found to be within acceptable ranges. The XRD study reveals presence of more functional groups in PK-2 than PK-1. The observed crystallanity of PK-1 was more (87.5%) than PK-2 (84.6%).

Discussion and Conclusion: Two varieties of Palasha Kshara were made in this study using two different combinations of ashes. This was an attempt to identify the need of Kshara prepared from all five parts of Panchanga) over the Kshara prepared from three parts (roots, stems and leaves) and standardize them pharmaceutically and analytically.