ANALYTICAL INVESTIGATION OF PHYTOCHEMICAL MARKERS IN PLUCHEA WALLICHIANA DC THROUGH SPECTROSCOPIC AND CHROMATOGRAPHIC TECHNIQUES

Background & Objective: Pluchea wallichiana DC is commonly used in the management of inflammatory ailments.The primary objective of the study was to identify and quantify its phytoconstituents using spectroscopy and chromatography methods.Methods: Preparative thin layer chromatography was utilized to separate gallic acid and lupeol, which were subsequently characterized using infrared, mass, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy techniques.Additionally, a high-performance thin layer chromatography method was developed and validated for the quantification of gallic acid, -sitosterol, and lupeol utilizing the Toluene: Ethyl acetate: Formic acid (8:3:0.5 v/v/v) mobile phase.Result: Lupeol (Rf 0.75) and sitosterol (Rf 0.63) were successfully separated using thin layer chromatography, followed by scanning at 521 nm after derivatization with anisaldehyde-sulphuric acid reagent.Gallic acid (Rf 0.19) was also separated using the same mobile phase, with subsequent scanning at 254 nm.The selected method was found linear at range 200-600 ng/spot with the correlation coefficients 0.998, 0.998, and 0.999, for lupeol,