Quality assessment and liriodenine quantification of Nelumbo nucifera dried leaf in Thailand

Introduction:Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn. dried leaves are used as crude drug in various Thai traditional recipe. Previous studies found that the leaf extracts exerted potent antioxidant effects, antispasm, direct vasodilatation action and moderate hypotensive effect on experimental animals. Liriodenine is an alkaloid prominent found in Nelumbonaceae. Its anticancer potential has been previously reported. Materials and Methods:N. nucifera leaves from 15 different locations throughout Thailand were examined for pharmacognostic specification. Liriodenine quantification by Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) image analysis was developed and compared to High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). Results: Anatomical and histological observation showed air chamber, trichosclereid and calcium oxalate. Pharmacognostic parameters revealed that the acid-insoluble ash, total ash, loss on drying and water content should be not more than 2.61, 9.62, 7.69 and 7.06% of dry weight respectively; while ethanol and water-soluble extractive should be not less than 6.24 and 9.51% of dry weight respectively. TLC image demonstrated clearly fluorescent spot of liriodenine at Rt 0.75 under UV 365 nm. Liriodenine content was 4.8 mg% by both methods. Conclusion: This study provided pharmacognostic specification toward fundamental standardization of N. nucifera leaf crude drug in Thailand. Additionally, the simple TLC with image analysis was shown as HPLC alternative to quantify the content of medicinal potential liriodenine alkaloid in this crude drug.