Quantification of picroside-I and picroside-II in Picrorhiza kurroa by HPTLC

A new high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) method for the simultaneous quantification of picroside-I and picroside-II in P. kurroa is described. Separation of picroside-I and picroside-II was achieved by mobile phase of CHCl3:MeOH (82:18, v/v) on precoated silica gel 60 F-254 aluminum plate. The densitometric determination of picrosides was carried out at 290 nm, in absorption-reflection mode. The calibration curves were linear in the range of (2-5 mu g). The method is simple, specific, rapid, and reliable for simultaneous determination of P-I and P-II in P. kurroa. The proposed method was applied for accurate quantification of large number of samples collected from different altitudes of western Himalaya.