Phytochemical investigation for the authentication of Indian traditional herbal drug Boerhavia diffusa and its differentiation from morphologically similar plant B. erecta

Boerhavia diffusa is an important herbal ingredient of several Ayurvedic and Unani formulations and it is commonly called as Punarnava in Indian system of medicine. But, this plant is often confused with Boerhavia erecta due to morphological similarity and also being adulterated in Indian herbal market. In order to differentiate these plant drugs, in the present work we have developed chemical fingerprints through phytochemical analysis, UV-Visible, FT-IR & NMR spectroscopy, HPTLC and HPLC chromatography. Phytochemical analysis of methanolic extract of investigated materials showed that B. diffusa contained higher level of total phenolic compounds (339.40 mg GAE / 100 g) when compared to B. erecta (269.87 mg GAE / 100 g). Scanning in UV-Visible spectroscopy exhibited maximum absorption at 212, 362, 428 & 663 nm for B. diffusa while B. erecta showed peaks at 214, 308, 349, 532 & 663 nm. Similarly, FT-IR spectroscopy of raw materials indicated notable difference between the samples at 400 – 1000 cm -1 region. NMR spectroscopy illustrated remarkable difference between the chloroform extract of selected samples at 1-3 ppm region. HPTLC profile of methanolic extract of B. diffusa exhibited a total number of 9 peaks while B. erecta showed 12 number of peaks. Chemical profile investigated in the present study will be helpful to differentiate B. diffusa from B. erecta and also useful to prevent their adulteration in herbal industry.