Natural production and quantification of ellagic acid in multiple plant parts of three Terminalia spp.

Ellagic acid (EA) is a natural phenol antioxidant, found in multiple fruits. Chemically, it is a dilactone of hexahydroxydiphenic acid. Owing to its immensely beneficial anti-proliferative, antioxidant, and anticancerous activities, it needs to be quantified in natural resources. An effective densitometric high-performance liquid chromatography (HPTLC) method was established for the simultaneous quantification of ellagic acid from different plant parts of Terminalia arjuna, T. bellerica, and T. chebula. The method was validated for intra-and inter-day precision, reproducibility, and specificity. The intraday precision and interday precision was 1.5% and 1.2% relative standard deviation (RSD), respectively. The reproducibility of standard EA was precise and the seven lanes provided similar banding pattern. The linearity curve for the EA produced a correlation coefficient (r) value of 0.98992, with regression equation Y=6330.441+935.150*X, and with a standard deviation value of 4.59%. For chromatogram development, toluene: ethyl acetate: formic acid (5: 5: 2.5) was optimized as mobile phase. With the exception of fruits of T. bellerica, all the plant parts of all three species contain a significant amount of EA; the highest EA content being (0.733 μg/μg dry weight) found in the roots of T. bellerica. In this study, the proposed HPTLC method for simultaneous quantification of EA was conducted in a simple, sensitive, specific, and precise manner that can be recommended for routine quality control and quantification of EA in plant materials.