A Preliminary Pharmacognostical and Physico-chemical Evaluation of Ashwagandha and Placebo Tablets

Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera Dunal) is one of the most commonly used medicinal plants in Indian Medicine for varied range of physical and psychological ailments. It is an important medicinal plant that has been used in Ayurvedic and indigenous medicine for over 3,000 years. Ashwagandha roots are a constituent of over 200 formulations in Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani medicine, which are used in the treatment of various physiological disorders. Previously several workers have characterized the roots of Ashwagandha pharmacognostically but till date no work has been done on standardization of tablets prepared with Ashwagandha root powder. The present study was planned to evaluate the Ashwagandha root powder pharmacognostically and to standardize the Ashwagandha tablets on various scientific parameters like organoleptic characters and physico-chemical parameters. Pharmacognostical evaluation of Ashwagandha root powder revealed Scaliform vessels, simple hair, pitted vessels, simple and compound starch grains and trichomes. Pharmaceutical analysis of Ashwagandha and placebo tablets showed, average weight of the tablet (565 mg, 593 mg), loss on drying (3 %, 5 %), hardness of the tablet (0.7 kg/cm, 0.6 kg/cm), disintegration time (5 sec, 55 min), water extract (28.6 % w/w, 28.3 % w/w), alcoholic extract (4.5 % w/w, 1.72 % w/w) respectively and ash value of Ashwagandha tablet was 7.5 %. The present preliminary findings may useful for future studies dealing with Ashwagandha or placebo tablets.