A comparative study on the standards of H.P.I. and phytochemical analysis of Andrographis paniculata collected in three progressive months of it’s flowering season

Background of the study Andrographis paniculata, known as kalmegh or chirayata, is an annual medicinal herb widely used in homeopathy. In homoeopathic system of medicine, H.P.I. has established the use of whole plant including roots for the preparation of mother tincture. As per the rules mentioned in the H.P.I., the collection of whole plant is to be done when the plant is in partly flower and partly budding stage. Being an annual plant, Andrographis blooms only once in a year. Seeds are sown from the month of May to July and the flowering comes from the month of September to December. The medicinal quality, consistency and phytoconstituents of a plant varies greatly depending on the part used, region, season, and time of harvest; making it essential to determine the optimal period of collection of a plant to get the best quality extract. The aim of the study is to find the influence of collection time of a plant (Andrographis paniculata) on the quality and phytochemical composition of the mother tinctures, which were prepared by harvesting plants in the final weeks of three distinct months of its flowering season i.e. September, October, and November respectively.