ANALYSIS OF ORGANIC CONSTITUENTS AND TRACE ELEMENTS OF ALOE VERA

Abstract

Ten organic constituents (aloesol, aloesin, aloenin, aloeresinA, isobarbaloin, isoaloresin, barbaloin, feruloyaloeresin, aloeresinE, and aloe-emodin) of Aloe vera plant have been determined. These compounds are found be important pharmacologically as well as for quality control. Plants collected from different geoclimatical regions of India and a few aloe based commercial products have been analyzed. Reverse Phase High Performance Liquid Chromatographic (RP-HPLC) method, which is proved to be very sensitive, has been used for the quantification of above mentioned compounds. In most of the samples barbaloin, isobarbaloin and aloesin are found in high concentrations. Beverages are found to contain slightly higher amount of barbaloin, gel sample are found to contain aloenin, in addition to barbaloin, isobarbaloin and aloe-emodin. Finally method has been validated. Accuracy of the method has been determined from recovery studies. Recoveries are found to be between 96.12 — 102.22%. Method has been found to be precise from replicate analysis. LoD, LoQ have been found to be between 0.01-0.25ng/g/ and 0.03 - O. 82ng/g.respectively. Trace elements are identified to be important in many metabolic activities, so it is important to determine elemental composition in plant like aloe vera, which has been using for numerous ailments. Inductively Coupled Plasma —Mass Spectrometer (ICP-MS), which is recognized to be highly sensitive and multielemental analytical technique, has been used for elemental analysis of Aloe Vera. First semiquantitative (qualitative analysis) analysis, which is unique feature of ICP-MS, has been used for determination of elemental composition. Total of 25 elements(Mn, Cr, Fe, Co, Cu, Ni, Al, P, Ni, Mo, Ca, Mg, Na, K, Pb, As, Se, Ti, U, Ba, Si, In, and Zr ) have been identified and later on quantified in quantitative mode by using external standards. . Accuracy of the method has been determined by analyzing SRM-1567 and by comparing ICP-MS data with AAS (t—test applied). Data is found to be valid 10-15% of error. Precision has been determined from replicate analysis. LoD, LoQ have been calculated from standard deviation of blank samples.