Spectrophotometric determination of piperine in Trikatu churna: An ayurvedic formulation

Trikatu churna is an important ayurvedic formulation, is official in ayurvedic formulary of India is combination of three reputed herbs, comprised of the fruits Piper longum (Pippali), Piper nigrum (Marica) and rhizomes of Zingiber officianalis (Saunth). The formulation is dispensed for the disorder of respiratory tract and digestive system. The method for spectrophotometric determination of piperine from the fruits of pippali, marica and Trikatu churna have been developed at absorption maxima 342.5 nm. The concentration of piperine present in raw material was found to be 3.6 +/- 0.31 % (w/w) in marica and 1.4 +/- 0.27 % (w/w) in pippali, respectively and in three identical laboratory batch of Trikatu chuma name TK-I, TK-II, TK-III was 1.66 +/- 0.39, 1.71 +/- 0.42, 1.69 +/- 0.43 % (w/w) (Table-2), respectively with mean value 1.69 +/- 0.41 % (w/w). The piperine content of all the three batches is found to be in close proximities with each other.