DETERMINATION OF SOME QUALITY INDICATORS OF THE HERB OF THE FOREST MALLOW (MALVA SYLVESTRIS)

According to experts from the World Health Organization, developed countries are seeing a growing trend in the popularity of herbal preparations, which is due to their soft, effective therapeutic effect on the body and the absence of side effects. In the Register of Medicines of the Russian Federation, herbal preparations are included in at least 40 pharmacological groups, while the Russian pharmaceutical market regularly experiences a shortage of medicinal herbal raw materials. Despite the widespread use of forest mallow herb in folk medicine, there are no official pharmacopoeial articles regulating the quality of raw materials. The aim of the work is to study the total content of flavonoids and polysaccharides, as well as moisture content, total ash and insoluble in hydrochloric acid in raw materials harvested in various phases of forest mallow vegetation (Malva silvestris L.). As objects of study, we used samples of forest mallow herb harvested in the Moscow region from cultivated plants during the flowering period in the summer of 2023-2024. The moisture content, total ash and insoluble in hydrochloric acid were assessed using the methods of the State Pharmacopoeia of the Russian Federation. The content of flavonoids in terms of rutin was determined spectrophotometrically, the total content of polysaccharides was estimated by gravimetry. During the analysis, it was found that the most optimal period for harvesting mallow grass is the budding and early flowering phase, when the raw material accumulates the maximum amount of flavonoids and polysaccharides. At the same time, the contamination of the raw material, manifested in the indicators of total ash and insoluble in hydrochloric acid, is lower than in the early fruiting phase.