Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Evaluation and toxicological quantification of undeclared allopathics and adulterated synthetic steroids in herbal antihypertensive preparations

Muhammad Asif Khan¹ , Amir Badshah¹, Jahangir Khan², Faryal Liaqat Ali³

¹Department of Pharmacy, University of Peshawar, Peshawar 25120; ²Department of Pharmacy, University of Malakand, Chakdara; ³Department of Pharmacy, Sarhad University, Peshawar, Pakistan.

For correspondence:- Muhammad Khan Email: muhammadasifkhan.263@gmail.com Tel:+923018087473

Accepted: 17 February 2018 Published: 31 March 2018

Citation: Khan MA, Badshah A, Khan J, Ali FL. Evaluation and toxicological quantification of undeclared allopathics and adulterated synthetic steroids in herbal antihypertensive preparations. Trop J Pharm Res 2018; 17(3):461-466 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v17i3.11

© 2018 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate raw and finished dosage form of herbal antihypertensives for quantification of undeclared allopathic contents and synthetic steroids adulteration in each unit and in total daily dose.

Methods: Analysis of herbal products for allopathic drugs adulteration was carried out using HPLC techniques. The methods were reproduced with optimized extraction and chromatographic conditions. Calibration curves were reconstructed for validation purposes.

Results: The herbal products were adulterated with various synthetic drugs. The concentrations (mean ± SD) were: atenolol (50.06 ± 1.20 mg/unit dose), propranolol (20.30 ± 0.44 mg/unit dose, 28.26 ± 0.06 mg/unit dose, 15.40 ± 1.58 mg/unit dose), ACE inhibitors i.e. captopril (52.99 ± 0.49 mg/unit dose) and frusemide (42.02 ± 0.88 mg/unit dose). For the synthetic steroids, the levels (mean ± SD) were prednisolone (13.67 ± 0.50 mg/unit dose), methyl prednisolone (4.18 ± 0.02 mg/unit dose), betamethasone (0.56 ± 0.06 mg/unit dose) and dexamethasone (1.75 ± 0.11 mg/unit dose).

Conclusion: Administration of adulterated remedies can cause severe toxicity and is a serious safety concerns for public health. Therefore, to maximize consumer safety, appropriate rules and regulations should be developed for registration of herbal remedies

Keywords: Herbal medicines, Adulterants, Allopathic drugs, Synthetic steroids