Abstract
Introduction: Quality assessment is imperative to establish safety and effectiveness of a drug. Rasayana Churna (RC) is a classical Ayurvedic formulation indicated in various diseases. Present study has been endeavoured to generate comparative analytical profile of different marketed brands of Rasayana Churna in India.
Material & Methods: Rasayana Churna was prepared as per the method mentioned in Ayurvedic Formulary of India and marketed RC samples of GMP certified pharmacies were procured from local market in New Delhi and coded as Brand A to Brand G. all the samples were evaluated for organoleptic, physicochemical, phytochemical, HPTLC, FTIR, UV spectroscopy and PCA analysis.
Results: All the samples of Rasayana Churna have shown similar organoleptic characteristics but exhibited difference in their pharmaceutical (carr’s index etc.), physicochemical, HPTLC, FTIR, UV-Vis spectroscopy and PCA profiles. Most of the quality parameters values were found in line with previously reported studies but major difference in value of quality parameters has been observed.
Conclusion: The present study revealed inter sample variability in various quality control parameters. In order to limit this variability, quality certification for raw drug and adoption of uniform SOP/SMP should be made essential to ensure the quality of finished product. Apart, in order to achieve greater accuracy in findings, further quality control studies can be initiated involving different marketed samples of a drug manufactured at same point of time.

Key words: FTIR; HPTLC; Marketed samples; Rasayana Churna; Quality control