Question

Determine of the alcohol content of asava and arista

Answer 1

Asavas and aristas are medicinal preparations made by soaking the drugs, either in coarse powder or in the form of decoction (kasaya), in a solution of sugar or jaggery, as the case may be, for a specified period of time, during which it undergoes a process of fermentation generating alcohol, thus facilitating the extraction of the active principles contained in the drugs. Alcohol, so generated, also serves as a preservative[1]. The formulation Kumaryasava is useful in the treatment of abdominal lump, cough, asthma, piles, neurological diseases, epilepsy, pthisis, abdominal diseases, diseases of neck region, digestive impairment, abdominal pain and menopause. Mustakarista is useful in the treatment of dyspepsia, digestive impairment, malabsorption syndrome, gastroenteritis with piercing pain. The main ingredients used in Kumaryasava are Aloe barbadensis, Terminalia chebula, Woodfordia fruticosa, Myristica fragrans, Syzygium aromaticum, Piper cubeba, Nardostachys jatamansi, Ricinus communis, jaggery and water. The main ingredients used in Mustakarista are Cyperus rotundus, Woodfordia fruticosa, Trachyspermum ammi, Zingiber officinale, Piper longum, Syzygium aromaticum, Trigonella foenum-graecum, Plumbago zeylanica, jaggery and water[2].

Standardized ayurvedic formulations of uniform quality are essential for beneficial therapeutic use. Due to lack of standards and quality control methods, there are batch-to-batch variations in the formulation. Among the asava and arista preparations, Kumaryasavaand Mustakarista the fast moving products in the market with high medicinal value were selected for the study. As part of standardization procedure, the formulations were tested for physicochemical parameters like pH, total solids, loss on drying, acid value, boiling range, specific gravity, ethanol content, viscosity and weight per ml. The variation in ethanol content in asavaand arista preparations stands a major problem in fixing up their limits as a quality control parameter. Thus to establish its limit over a period of time the present study focused on determining the ethanol content of the formulations Kumaryasava and Mustakarista on a storage period of 30 days by specific gravity as well as chromatographic (GC) methods.