Shrishailappa Badami

A sensitive, rapid, simple, and accurate high performance thin layer chromatographic method has been developed to standardize the bark of Grewia tiliaefolia Vahl. (Family: Tiliaceae) using betulin as an analytical marker. Chloroform extracts of bark from five different sources were used for HPTLC on silica gel with toluene‐ethyl acetate, 90 + 10 v/v, as mobile phase. Under these conditions, the R_f of betulin was 0.22. The calibration plot was linear in the range of 1000 ng to 1800 ng of betulin and the correlation coefficient, 0.999, was indicative of good linear dependence of peak area on concentration. The mean assay of betulin was 2.596 ± 0.594 mg g^–1 of bark. The method permits reliable quantification of betulin and good resolution and separation of betulin from other constituents of Grewia tiliaefolia. Recovery values from 96.09 to 98.87% showed that the reliability and reproducibility of the method were excellent. The proposed HPTLC method for quantitative monitoring of betulin in Grewia tiliaefolia can be used for routine quality testing.

The total alkaloid fraction of the methanolic extract of Solanum pseudocapsicum leaves was tested for its in‐vivo antitumor activity against Dalton's Lymphoma Ascites model in mice. The total alkaloid fraction at 2.5 and 5.0 mg/kg body weight doses exhibited antitumor activity as revealed by the significant increase in the mean survival time and the percentage increase in life span of tumor bearing mice. The antitumor activity observed may be due to its cytotoxic properties. However the treatment caused a significant decrease in the body weight below the normal indicating the toxicity of the treatment. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.