Background
Ayurveda is primarily based upon use of herbs either singly or in combination (polyherbal). The cow ghee (clarified butterfat) is considered as a precious base for preparing medicines in Ayurveda. Processing of ghee with plant ingredients is renowned for enhancing their therapeutic efficacy.
Objective
In present research work, the attempt was made to develop cow ghee based Polyherbal
Bhallatakadi Ghrita
formulations and evaluate them with reference to ‘
Murcchana
’ and ‘
Shata-Dhauta
’ process.
Materials and methods
The research plants were identified, procured, authenticated and processed. The extracts of plant materials were prepared and used for development of Polyherbal
Bhallatakadi Ghrita
(PHBG), Polyherbal
Bhallatakadi Murcchita Ghrita
and Polyherbal
Bhallatakadi Shata-Dhauta Ghrita
formulations as per Ayurvedic procedures. The prepared
ghrita
formulations were subjected to organoleptic (colour, odour, taste, appearance and touch), physicochemical (pH, viscosity, moisture content, specific gravity, refractive index, acid value, saponification value, iodine value, peroxide value, Rechert Meissl value and Polenske value) evaluation, in-vitro antioxidant and GC-MS analysis. The accelerated and real time stability studies were carried out to determine shelf life of
ghrita
formulations.
Results
The results of evaluations indicate that, developed PHBG formulations retained the organoleptic and physicochemical characteristics of ghee. The shelf life of formulations was found to be in the range of 1.6 to 3.3 years at accelerated and 2.2 to 3.8 years at real time stability conditions. All
ghrita
formulations exhibited antioxidant activity in dose dependent manner.
Conclusion
The standardization or evaluation of Polyherbal
Bhallatakadi Ghrita
formulations was found to be crucial for the establishment of a steady biological, chemical or simply a quality assurance profile of the drugs.