DOI: 10.4103/jdras.jdras_351_24 ISSN: 2279-0357

Pre-formulation study of Kutajadi herbal oral suspension

Aiswarya Babu, Rajendraswami Hiremath

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Kutajadi churna (KC) is an unexplored polyherbal formulation indicated for Raktatisara . This condition of bloody diarrhea mainly affects the pediatric age group. It is important to develop safe, potent, and convenient herbal dosage forms with longer shelf life, improved palatability, increased bioavailability, and easy oral administration. Therefore, the objective of this study was to develop and evaluate Kutajadi suspension (KS) prepared from KC.

METHODS:

The suspension was prepared as per standard operative procedures. For the pre-formulation study of KS, four formulations [F1, F2, F3, and F4] with different concentrations of the active pharmaceutical ingredient, that is, Kutajadi churna , were formulated, and the selected formula was evaluated for quality control parameters, high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) fingerprinting.

RESULTS:

KC showed the presence of phytochemical metabolites such as flavonoids, steroids, and tannins, which exhibit antidiarrheal, antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory activities. No appreciable changes in sedimentation volume and viscosity were observed in F1, F2, and F3, whereas a noticeable change was observed in F4. Among the four formulations, F3 exhibited good stability, appearance, palatability, and a pH of 4.9 and was therefore selected for HPTLC and FTIR fingerprinting. HPTLC analysis revealed 8 peaks under shortwave (254 nm), 9 peaks under longwave (366 nm), and 13 peaks under visible light (550 nm). FTIR analysis indicated the presence of functional groups such as alkanes, carboxylic acids, alkenes, and aromatic esters.

CONCLUSION:

The polyherbal KC was modified into a KS. Further studies, including batch-wise evaluation, stability testing, and assessment of safety parameters such as microbial load, pesticide residues, and heavy metal content, will aid in the development of a standardized, quality-assured formulation.

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