Scientific Validation of Bioactive Compound Psoralen from Psoralea corylifolia Seeds Extract Using HPLC-DAD-TOFMS Analysis

Psoralea corylifolia Linn. is an herb from the Fabaceae family, used in both Indian and Chinese traditional medicine. Commonly known as Babchi, it is a traditional medicinal plant widely utilized in Ayurveda and Unani medicine. Psoralen, a major bioactive furocoumarin found in its seeds, exhibits various pharmacological activities. In this study, High-Performance Liquid Chromatography coupled with Diode-Array Detection and Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (HPLC-DAD-TOFMS) was employed to validate and quantify psoralen in P. corylifolia seed extracts. The characteristic retention time (Rt) of the psoralen standard was recorded at 3.856 min, while the crude seed extract exhibited a retention time of 3.688 min. The ara density analysis revealed that psoralen constituted 75.27% of the crude extract. Furthermore, mass spectrometric analysis confirmed that the exact mass of psoralen in P. corylifolia (m/z 391.1) matched that of the standard psoralen ([M-H] ⁺ m/z 392.2). These findings suggest that the fully validated HPLC-DAD and HPLC-TOFMS methods can be effectively applied for the quantitative determination of psoralen in P. corylifolia. Due to its high psoralen content, P. corylifolia holds potential as a potent therapeutic agent for the treatment of hypopigmentary disorders.