Quantification of punicalagin in pomegranate peels from high-performance thin-layer chromatography

Background: Punicalagin is the main phenolic compound present in pomegranate (Punica granatum), it possesses various kinds of activities which is very essential as a dietary supplement, herbal supplements, or nutraceuticals are widely available in the market and are used clinically for various therapeutic activities, in the recent years, especially in the pandemic period of COVID-19. Hence, it is necessary to standardize herbal medicines for quality control, quantitative analysis for purity, and routine analysis. The punicalagin shows potential antiviral activity against the SARS-COV-2 virus, the literature review reveals that punicalagin is the area of interest during the recent research studies, and the present work deals with the quantitative analysis of punicalagin from high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) in marketed herbal preparation and the in-house preparation. Methods: The method development and quantitative analysis of punicalagin in pomegranate are developed using the solvent system chloroform: ethyl acetate: formic acid (4:3:3 v/v/v), and the method is successfully developed. Results: The punicalagin is quantified at 257 nm, acid (4:3:3). The content found in the various samples in PGGO is 3.207 mg, in PGBB is 1.257 mg, in PGNV is 1.743 mg, in PGWE is 807.6μg, in PGDF is 835.2 μg, and in in-house is 867.2 μg of punicalagin, from 1 g of each sample. Conclusion: The method was successfully developed, but there was no method developed for punicalagin in HPTLC, this is the novel approach we have done, and the method can be used for routine analysis.