Ocimum sanctum (Holy basil), belonging to Lamiaceae family, is a herb native to
India. It is regarded as one of the most important plant used in Ayurvedic medicine which constitute
ursolic acid (3-â-hydroxyurs-12-en-oic acid), a pentacyclic triterpene acid that is used in cosmetics
and also capable of inhibiting various types of cancer cells. The current study describes the
development and validation of a simple and rapid reverse phase HPLC assay method for estimation
of Ursolic acid in Ocimum sanctum herb powders and extract in human plasma. A HPLC system
comprising of RP-C18 column (250 x 4.6 mm I.D., 5 micrometer (ìm) particle size) with solvent
system consisting of acetonitrile and water (90:10, v/v) in isocratic mode using diethyl ether-hexane
(8:2, v/v) as extracting solvent system and detection at 210 nanometer (nm) using PDA detector.
The proposed method was validated for its LOD, LOQ, linearity, accuracy, precision, sensitivity,
system suitability and stability. The proposed method was found to be linear in the range of 2
100 microgram (ìg)/ml with correlation coefficient of 0.9999. The LOD was 1ìg/ml and LOQ was
5 ìg/ml. The developed HPLC method was found to be precise, sensitive, accurate and reproducible
and may be used for qualitative as well as quantitative estimation of ursolic acid in Ocimum
sanctum herb powders and extracts in human plasma.
Key words: Medicinal Plants, Ocimum sanctum, Ursolic acid, Human plasma, RP-HPLC.
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