High-performance thin-layer chromatographic-densitometric quantification and recovery of bioactive compounds for identification of elite chemotypes of Gloriosa superba L. collected from Sikkim Himalayas (India)

Background: Gloriosa superba L. (Colchicaceae) is used as adjuvant therapy in gout for its potential antimitotic activity due to high colchicine(s) alkaloids. Objective: This study aimed to develop an easy, cheap, precise, and accurate high-performance thin-layer chromatographic (HPTLC) validated method for simultaneous quantification of bioactive alkaloids (colchicine and gloriosine) in G. superba L. and to identify its elite chemotype(s) from Sikkim Himalayas (India). Methods: The HPTLC chromatographic method was developed using mobile phase of chloroform: acetone: diethyl amine (5:4:1) at λ _maxof 350 nm. Results: Five germplasms were collected from targeted region, and on morpho-anatomical inspection, no significant variation was observed among them. Quantification data reveal that content of colchicine (R_f: 0.72) and gloriosine (R_f: 0.61) varies from 0.035%–0.150% to 0.006%–0.032% (dry wt. basis). Linearity of method was obtained in the concentration range of 100–400 ng/spot of marker(s), exhibiting regression coefficient of 0.9987 (colchicine) and 0.9983 (gloriosine) with optimum recovery of 97.79 ± 3.86 and 100.023% ± 0.01%, respectively. Limit of detection and limit of quantification were analyzed, respectively, as 6.245, 18.926 and 8.024, 24.316 (ng). Two germplasms, namely NBG-27 and NBG-26, were found to be elite chemotype of both the markers. Conclusion: The developed method is validated in terms of accuracy, recovery, and precision studies as per the ICH guidelines (2005) and can be adopted for the simultaneous quantification of colchicine and gloriosine in phytopharmaceuticals. In addition, this study is relevant to explore the chemotypic variability in metabolite content for commercial and medicinal purposes