High performance liquid chromatographic determination of marmelosin and psoralen in bael (Aegle marmelos (L.) Correa) fruit

Marmelosin and psoralen, two bioactive coumarins present in bael fruit, are reported to have antihelminthic, antibacterial, antispasmodic, artemicide and cytotoxic activities. A high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method using diode array detector was standardized to estimate marmelosin and psoralen in bael pulp. Both marmelosin and psoralen were extracted from the pulp in benzene and benzene was filtered. The benzene free residue was dissolved in 10 ml of HPLC grade methanol. The average recovery of marmelosin from bael pulp ranged between 98.7 % and 110.3 % after adding 4 or 10 mu g ml(-1) concentrations with a minimum limit of detection of 0.02 mu g ml(-1). The corresponding recovery for psoralen at same concentrations ranged from 94.9 % to 97.6 % with the limit of detection being 0.01 mu g ml(-1). The limit of quantification for both the molecules was 0.1 mu g ml(-1). HPLC was found an easy, quick, effective and sensitive method to estimate marmelosin and psoralen in bael fruits.