Simultaneous Estimation of Curcumin and Piperine in Their Crude Powder Mixture and Ayurvedic Formulation Using High Performance Thin Layer Chromatography

Numerous ayurvedic formulations contain turmeric (curcumin) and long or black Pepper (piperine) together in combinations. Curcumin is reported to have numerous medicinal activities. Piperine is reported as a well known bioavailability enhancer of other drugs. Here we report a simple, sensitive and fast method for simultaneous quantification of curcumin and piperine in their crude powder mixtures and ayurvedic formulation. The separation was performed on TLC aluminium plates precoated with silica gel G60 F254. Good separation was achieved in the mobile phase of Chloroform: Methanol (9.6:0.4 v/v) at Rf = 0.57 and 0.82 for curcumin and piperine respectively. Densitometric scanning of both compounds was carried out at 373 nm. The calibration curves showed a good linear relationship with r = 0.9998 and 0.9986 for curcumin and piperine respectively. The method was validated successfully by checking precision, repeatability and accuracy. The present method can simplify simultaneous analysis of curcumin and piperine in ayurvedic formulations for their routine quality control.