Isolation and TLC Densitometric Quantification of Lysergol from the Seeds of Ipomoea muricata (Linn.) Jacq.

Seeds of Ipomoea muricata, well known in Ayurveda for its purgative action, contains mainly indole alkaloids. Lysergol (major alkaloid) exhibits hypotensive, psychotropic, and uterus and intestine-stimulating properties. TLC fingerprint profile of I. muricata seeds was developed using chloroform？:？methanol (95？:？5 v/v) as the mobile phase. Plate was visualized under UV 254？nm and UV 366？nm and after derivatization with Van Urk reagent. Lysergol resolved at . Further, TLC-densitometric method was developed and validated for quantification of Lysergol avoiding derivatization step. Ethyl acetate？: ？methanol (7？:？3 v/v) was used as the mobile phase. Linear regression analysis data for the calibration curve showed a good linear relationship ( ) in the concentration range from 20？ng to 140？ng, with respect to the peak area. The developed method was precise with RSD for intraday (range from 1.20 to 1.89) and interday (range from 1.39 to 1.92) for 60, 80, and 100？ng/spot of Lysergol. The instrumental precision was 0.67 (% RSD). The limit of detection and limit of quantification for Lysergol were 12？ng and 40？ng, respectively. The average percentage recovery was 99.68. The amount of Lysergol was found to be 0.23% w/w. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report for the quantification of Lysergol from I. muricata seeds without derivatization. 1. Introduction The seeds of Ipomoea muricata (Linn.) Jacq. (Fam. Convolvulaceae) are commonly known as Kaladana [1]. It is a well reputed drug of Ayurveda (known as Krishnabija) widely used as purgative, febrifuge, cardiac depressant, spasmolytic, hypotensive, antibacterial, and antifungal agent [1]. The seeds are used as Virechana (purgation) for its anthelmintic properties. The seeds are taken along with Saindhav (rock salt) and Shunti (Zingiber officinale); as otherwise, it gives a burning sensation (Shul) in the stomach [2]. The seeds are also incorporated in a herbal preparation known as Divya Churna (Patanjali Pharmacy, Ambala, Haryana, India) indicated for constipation, loss of appetite, and other gastric disorders [3]. Seeds of I. muricata contain 0.49% w/w of total alkaloids (mainly indole type) out of which Lysergol (Table 1, Scheme 1) constitutes 53% and chanoclavine 37% [4, 5]. Pharmacologically the most important of the total alkaloids in I. muricata seeds are lysergic acid amide (LAA) and its epimer isolysergic acid amide (iso LAA) [5]. Lysergol has also been reported to possess hallucinogenic, hypotensive, psychotropic, analgesic, and uterus and intestine-stimulating properties [6]. It is utilized