A novel high-performance liquid chromatography-electron spray ionization-mass spectrometry method for simultaneous determination of guggulsterones, piperine and gallic acid in Triphala guggulu

“Triphalaguggulu” is an important Ayurvedic formulation comprising of Guggulu, that is, Commiphora wightii (Arn.) Bhandari as a base wherein powdered fruits of triphala, that is, Phyllanthus emblica L., Terminalia bellirica (Gaertn.) Roxb and Terminalia chebula Retz, along with powdered fruit of Piper longum L. are compounded. This polyherbal preparation has been strongly recommended in chronic inflammation, piles, and fistula. However, due to the complexity of compound formulation standardization of commercial products is challenging. In the present communication marker-based standardization of “Triphalaguggulu” preparation using gallic acid (for triphala), piperine (for P. longum L.) and guggulsterones (for guggulu) is reported. These compounds of diverse chemistry were successfully separated on a Waters HR-C18 column by isocratic elution with methanol and water (80:20 v/v) as mobile phase at the flow rate of 1.0 mL/min coupled with photodiode array detector. These optimal chromatographic conditions were used for simultaneous quantification of gallic acid, guggulsterones (E and Z) and piperine in commercial samples by high-performance liquid chromatography-electron spray ionization-mass spectrometry and method was validated as per ICH guidelines.