PATRA ARKA AS A PRESERVATIVE IN TRIPHALA KWATHA

Introduction: Primary dosage forms are the important basic preparations whose shelf life is a challenge for the practice.Kwatha is one such preparation which is easily prone to contamination and can be marketed only by the addition of suitable preservatives to increase the shelf life.So addition of preservatives is being practiced to prolong the shelf life of kwatha but use of chemical preservatives like sodium benzoate, etc are harmful to body and even have carcinogenic effects.Hence there aroused a need to find natural preservatives.Arka which is a water distillate consists of essential substances from the crude drug and has longer shelf life comparatively.Patra arka possess anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-oxidant properties and economically cheaper and easily available drug and triphala kwatha being useful in many purposes, an attempt was made in this study to elucidate the preservative action of patra arka in triphala kwatha.Materials and methods: Includes preparation of patra arka, triphala kwatha and conduction of analytical and microbiological study to see the preservative action using SDA and MHA media.Observations and Results: Study follows observations over microbial growth of the sample on daily basis where patra arka showed preservative action for 21 days.Aspergillus niger was the fungal growth seen on 22 nd day.Discussion: Patra arka owing to its pH, chemical constituents and other properties preserved the triphala kwatha for a stipulated period of time.Conclusion: From the study, it was concluded that the patra arka