Viola tricolor L. (heartsease) has been traditionally utilized as an herbal medicine internally to treat upper-respiratory problems (catarrh and cough) and externally to treat skin disorders such as eczema, seborrhea, impetigo, and acne, also employed in cystitis and as a diuretic. Viola taxes revealed to be a rich source of cyclotides and flavone glycosides. [1] Anthocyanins, flavonoids, coumarins, tannins, saponins, carotenoids, salicylic acid and other phenolic acids are constituents of V. tricolor herb. [2,3] Rutin was earlier isolated by the use of paper chromatography as the main flavonoid constituent from the plant. [2] The flavonoids contents of heartsease were reinvestigated in the methanolic extracts of a commercial dried plant material by Vukics et al. [3] using NMR, LC-MS and HPLC techniques. According to these authors, the main flavonoid component was identified as violanthin (6-C-glucosyl-8-C-rhamnosylapigenin) followed by rutin, both in significant quantities. [3,4] Rutin (3-O-rhamnoglucosyl quercetin) is found in many typical nutrimental plants and is an important dietary constituent of food and plant-based beverages. Several analytical techniques have been described for rutin

Heartsease, also known as wild pansy (Viola tricolor L.), contains considerable amounts of polyphenols: 109.32 ± 1.29 mg of Gallic acid equivalent/g of extract. This study investigates their phytoconstituents and antioxidant capacity and validates a method for the quantification of rutin in the crude extract of the flowers of V. tricolor and in the extract incorporated in gel. Much better antioxidant capacity was found for the extract [inhibition concentration (IC50) of 16.00 ± 0.78 µg/mL] than the standard ascorbic acid (IC50 of 16.57 ± 0.95 µg/mL); these excellent results may be attributable to the amounts of polyphenols, flavonoids and condensed tannins. The high-performance liquid chromatography method for the quantification of rutin in the extract and gel was linear, sensitive, precise, specific, accurate and robust. This validated method can be used to control the quality of the extract and the gel.