Abstract

Ashwagandha has been an important herb in the Ayurvedic and indigenous medical systems for over 3000 years. The roots of the plant are categorized as Rasayana (tonic) for its wide ranging health benefits. Objective: As the standardization of herbal formulation is of great concern for its safety and efficacy for that reason this work is aimed for comparative evaluation of various quality parameters of three marketed brands of Ashwagandha churna. Methods: Three different and popular marketed formulations of Ashwagandha Churna were assessed comparatively for their organoleptic, physicochemical and phytochemical properties as per the methods prescribed in Pharmacopoeias. Results: The data analysis revealed that all the parameters of three brands of Ashwagandha Churna had approximately similar values with some significant variations in a few parameters. The value of water soluble and alcohol soluble extractives of Brand B was lesser than the standard values and the pH was higher than the other two brands. There was also a considerable difference between the flow properties of the powder of all three brands. All the three brands were found to contain Cadmium concentration slightly more than the prescribed values. Conclusion: Therefore the present investigation reveals that there is a need to standardize the complete manufacturing procedure and to make more stringent quality control parameters in order to reduce variation among different Ayurvedic preparations.