PHARMACOGNOSTIC AND HPTLC COMPARISON OF KERALA MARKET SAMPLES OF BHARANGI (CHERUTHEK) WITH GENUINE SOURCE PLANT ROTHECA SERRATA (L.) STEANE & MABB

Background: Bhāraṅgī, herbal drug used in Ayurveda as Kapha–Vata samaka and indicated in Swasa, Kasa, Vrana, Shotha etc. It is an important ingredient in many of the preparations like Kantakaryavaleha, Kanakasava, Dasamularista, Lodhrasavam, Sudarsanasavam. As per API the accepted source of Bhāraṅgī is Rotheca serrata (L.) Steane & Mabb belongs to family Lamiaceae. There were ambient studies in which it was found that roots of Bhāraṅgī had been adulterated with stem of the same in the market. But there were no published works indicating the presence of adulterants in the Kerala market, hence this study was proposed to assess the genuineness of raw drug available in the name of Cheruthek (Bhāraṅgī) in different Kerala markets with the root of genuine source plant R. serrata. Materials and Methods: Fresh root of Bhāraṅgī (Rotheca serrata (L.) Steane & Mabb) are collected from the natural habitat. The market samples of Cheruthek were collected from six different regions in Kerala. All samples were screened for pharmacognostic parameters- macroscopic, microscopic, histo-chemical and powder microscopic characterization along with HPTLC profile and compared with the genuine drug. Result & Conclusion: After the pharmacognostic comparison and HPTLC profiling of six market samples of the drug Cheruthek collected from selected districts of Kerala, the Kozhikode sample had similar characters of the R. serrata; Thiruvananthapuram sample was having characters of the plant Premna herbaceae Roxb. All other samples were adulterated with various plant parts.