Comparison of Bioactive Ingredients in Ocimum Species

With the increasing demand for health care approaches, resurgence of herbal medicines has taken up great dimensions in changing the health care scenario across the globe. However, identification of the correct species of therapeutic importance is of utmost necessity to deliver quality products to the global market. Hence, modern approach in the standardization of single herbal preparations employing sophisticated techniques is the need of the hour. The evaluation of a product in its entirety, so-called “fingerprinting” can be accomplished by appropriate methods, which may include HPLC, GC-MS, HPTLC-densitometry, FT-NIR, high-field NMR or a combination of these techniques. Using chemical fingerprinting, plants can be demarcated on the basis of their species, strain and geographical origin. Chemical fingerprinting of plants, through chromatographic fingerprinting is highly informative which includes its use as an absolute indicator of the chemical characteristics of plants. Adulterants can be distinguished even in processed samples, enabling the authentication of the drug. Herein, in the present study two varieties of Ocimum species with green and purple coloured leaves collected from Tirunelvelli district commonly known as “Tulasi” in Tamil or “Holy Basil” in English and widely used in both ayurvedic and siddha drugs was subjected to chemical fingerprinting using HPTLC and GC. Moreover, the secondary metabolities such as polyphenols, tannins, and flavonoids were quantified to check the potency of the crude drug material. The bioactive molecule such as eugenol was found to be varying in both the species and the purple variety was found to contain more of the bioactive molecules. The fingerprinting of chemical profile as well as the quantification of the bioactive molecules in the two varieties of Ocimum species exemplified that fingerprinting using analytical techniques are comprehensive and more informative to identify and authenticate the raw drug and proves to be a tool for standardization of herbal drugs.