Analysis of Mother Tinctures with the help of High Performance Thin Layer Chromatography

HPTLC is an analytical technique based on TLC, but with enhancements intended to increase the resolution of the compounds to be separated and to allow quantitative analysis of the compounds. It is a sophisticated and automated form of TLC. The procedure simultaneously processes the sample and standard that results in better analytical precision and accuracy at a faster pace. It allows several analyses to be done at the same time. HPTLC is a highly sophisticated equipment used for qualitative as well as quantitative analysis of drug ingredients i.e. glycosides, alkaloids etc. that are present in the tinctures and extracts. It is also used for developing in-house standardization of mother tinctures and developing analytical methods for testing mother tinctures. HPTLC method is very simple, powerful, rapid, reliable and cost effective with respect to the accuracy of the result based on both qualitative and quantitative analysis. For homoeopathic formulations, development of standard procedure through HPTLC is a new approach which may lead to proper standardization of different homoeopathic tinctures based on fingerprinting characteristics. This investigation shows that these particular characteristics may be used as standardization tool for homoeopathic tinctures more effectively and most accurately and is utmost essential which could enable the society in general to have quality homoeopathic formulations on one hand and to gain a momentum in homoeopathic medicine on the other. These types of findings, however, cannot rule out the need of further standardization and evaluation of various homoeopathic formulations but definitely it may lead to a new way in the development of standard procedures for different homoeopathic mother tinctures as well as various other formulations.1