Background: The Unani system of medicine has been practised since centuries for the treatment of a range of diseases. In spite of their efficacy they have been widely criticised due to the lack of standardization and poor quality control. Standardization of Unani medicine is a valuable issue at the present because they are very prone to contamination, deterioration, adulteration and variation in composition due to biodiversity as well as careless collection.
Objective: To Standardize and Development of HPTLC Fingerprinting of a polyherbal Unani formulation Qurs-e-Safa.
Materials and methods: The conventional and modern analytical techniques were used to standardise Qurs-e-Safa. The study was carried into three different batches of Qurs-e-Safa prepared with its ingredients. The parameters studied are organoleptic, microscopic, physicochemical parameters, phytochemical screening, TLC, HPTLC profile, aflatoxin, microbial load and heavy metal analysis.
Results and conclusion: Qurṣ-e-Sa‘fa is dark yellow in colour and aromatic smell. Uniformity of diameter and weight variation were found to be 13 ± 0, and 524.7 ± 1.72 mg. friability, hardness and disintegration time of all 3 batches were found to be (0.0615 ± 0.004, 0.0885 ± 0.0047 and 0.0725 ± 0.0058), (3.5 ± 0.2886, 3.67 ± 0.1674 and 3.67 ± 0.1674) and (16 to 17 minutes). Extractive value were found to be maximum in distilled water (38.488 ± 0.20, 37.3824 ± 0.38 and 39.8177 ± 0.13) followed by alcohol (27.5406 ± 0.54, 27.5656 ± 0.32 and 26.9229 ± 0.25). Loss of weight on drying, pH, total ash, acid insoluble ash, qualitative test was set in. Phytochemical screening revealed the presence of Carbohydrates, Phenols, Resins, Proteins, Steroids, fixed oil and Flavonoids. The microbial load was found absent and heavy metals were within permissible limits. The data evolved from the study may serve as a reference to validate and also help in the quality control of other finished products in future research.