Escin in pharmaceutical oral dosage forms: quantitative densitometric HPTLC determination.

A practical and reliable method for the quantitative determination of escin in pharmaceuticals was developed. The TLC-densitometric determination was performed without using spray or dipping reagents in order to provide a more rapid and simple analytical procedure. Chromatographic separations were obtained on analytical HPTLC silica gel plates and the elution was made with 3.5:4.5:2 PropOH-ethyl acetate-water (v/v/v). Densitometric analysis was performed directly at 212 nm, corresponding to lambda max of escin obtained by in situ-scanning. A second degree polynomial regression relationship was found between the peak areas and the amounts of the escin standard deposited in the range 1.15-6.90 micrograms. The method is specific, accurate and reliable and was applied successfully to the quantitative determination of escin in commercial samples.