PHYSICAL AND PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING OF MARKET SAMPLES OF ASHWAGANDHA [WITHANIA SOMNIFERA (LINN) DUNAL] IN KERALA.

Withaniasomnifera (Linn) Dunal (Solanaceae) is an ayurvedic herb widely distributed throughout India. The Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India (API) mentions root of Withaniasomnifera(Linn)Dunal as the officinal part of Ashwagandha. In Kerala, it is used in a variety of formulations either as single or in combinations. But there is a huge difference between its demand and availability. So the study was undertaken to assess the genuineness of Ashwagandhaavailable in herbal raw drug markets of Kerala. For this purpose, 28 commercial samples (one from urban and one from rural) of Ashwagandha was collected from each of 14 districts of Kerala and its characters were compared with the root collected from the genuine source plant of Ashwagandha [Withaniasomnifera (Linn) Dunal] and also with the standards mentioned for Ashwagandhain API. Comparisons were done with the aid of Physical and Phytochemical evaluations including estimation of Foreign matter, Total ash, Acid insololuble ash, Water insoluble ash, Alcohol soluble extractive, Water soluble extractive, Total sugar, Reducing sugar, Fibre content, Volatile oil. The result got from each of these matched with that of genuine sample and the standards given in API..But there were slight variations. These slight variation in physicochemical and phytochemical results may be due to several factors such as different geographic condition, edaphic factors, environmental condition etc. So the samples got from each of the 14 districts of Kerala were thus found to be genuine.