Gas chromatography‐mass spectrophotometric profile of cold‐pressed Celastrus paniculatus seed oil and its high‐performance thin‐layer chromatographic analysis emphasizing squalene content

Celastrus paniculatus, a medicinal plant with diverse therapeutic activities, is known as ‘malkangani’ in the traditional medicine system of India, Ayurveda. It is well known for its memory‐enhancing potential. The reported work involves the gas chromatography‐mass spectrophotometric analysis of cold‐pressed seed oil of Celastrus paniculatus. It revealed the presence of components such as monosaturated fatty acids, polyunsaturated long‐chain fatty acids, and their derivatives. It also showed the presence of terpenes such as squalene, β amyrone, β amyrin acetate, and long‐chain hydrocarbons. Among all the constituents, squalene was found to be a major component. Hence, considering the potential pharmacological actions of squalene, a high‐performance thin‐layer chromatographic (HPTLC) method has been developed for its quantification and subsequently validated as per the International Conference of Harmonization guidelines. A HPTLC fingerprint of oil was obtained on pre‐coated silica gel 60 F254 aluminum sheets, using n‐hexane‐diethyl ether‐glacial acetic acid (7:3:0.05 v/v/v). A densitometric scan was performed at 470 nm after derivatization with vanillin sulphuric acid to quantify squalene. A well‐resolved squalene peak was obtained at a retardation factor of 0.85. It is a simple approach for the estimation of squalene in Celastrus paniculatus seed oil for quality control.