Comparative standardization and evaluation of formulated and marketed ashwagandha churna

Herbal drugs have played an important role in the world health. In ancient time, they are used as medicine in a treatment of wide range of diseases. In recent years, the demand of plant-based medicines, health products, pharmaceuticals, food supplement, nutraceuticals, cosmetics, etc has enormously increased. In many countries most of herbal drugs are poorly marketed due to improper regulations. The assurance of safety, efficacy and quality of medicinal plants and herbal products has become a major issue. Standardization of drug means confirmation of its identity and determination of its quality, purity and detection of nature of adulterant by various parameters. Every herbal-formulations must be standardized as per WHO guidelines. As the standardization of herbal formulation is of great concern for its safety and efficacy for that reason this work is aimed at comparative evaluation of various quality parameters of three marketed formulations. The three different popular marketed formulations of Ashwagandha Churna (powder) were assessed comparatively for their organoleptic, physicochemical and phytochemical properties as per the methods prescribed in Pharmacopoeias.