Quantification of Valerenic Acid in Sleep and Relax Herbal Product

A.R. Gohari¹, N. Mokhber Dezfuli¹, E. Said Razi², M. Abdolkarimi², M. Movahedian², S.Saeidnia¹*

¹Medicinal Plants Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. ²Vana Pharmaceutical Company, 9th km of Karaj Makhsous Road. Tehran, Iran.

ABSTRACT: aleriana officinalis, well known as valerian, is one of the important herbal medicines, belongs to Valerianaceae family. The valerian genus covers around 250 species throughout Europe and Asia. Six of theValeriana species grow wildly in Iran. The anxiolytic and sedative effect of valerian is the valuable medicinal properties of this plant and would be due to the presence of valerenic acid. For this reason, quantitation of valerenic acid is very important in herbal remedies and preparations contained valerian extract. In the present study, quantitation of valerenic acid has been reported in a phytopharmaceutical product, Sleep&Relax®, which is widely exhibited in drugstores and herbal pharmacies across Canada and Iran. The result of this study shows that the average amount of valerenic acid evaluated was 40 mg in each capsule which is in agreement with the claimed amount on the brochure of product. The percentage of valerenic acid in this product has been measured as 113.43% which is in agreement with the USP standards (90% -120%). The measured amounts of valerenic acid were decreased as 51% for one month and 53% for 6 month storages compared to the samples stored at room temperature and normal condition.

KEYWORDS: valerenic acid; valerian; HPLC

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