Preparation and Characterization of Some Herbal Ointment Formulations with Evaluation of Antimicrobial Property

The Indian subcontinent is enriched by a variety of flora-both aromatic and medicinal plants. Herbal drugs constitute a major part in all the traditional systems of medicine. There are approximately 1250 Indian medicinal plants, which are used in formulating therapeutic preparation according to Ayurveda and other traditional system of medicine. This work has been an approach to formulate a modern Ayurvedic formulation with single and double drug combination. Both the formulations are found to be very efficacious in all the parameters which was conducted for its characterization and also found enhance antimicrobial property. This study may give a brief importance for modernization of Ayurvedic preparation and also the importance of some herbs which can be distinct within some time period. INTRODUCTION According to survey report by WHO, about 25 per cent of prescribed human medicines are derived from plants and 80 per cent people still depend on traditional system of medicines. The herbal wealth of India and the knowledge of their medicinal properties have a long tradition, as referred in Rig veda and other ancient literature. The topography of India in the tropical belt with its varied climatic zones made it a vast storehouse of medicinal plants. The quality assessment of herbal formulations is of paramount importance in order to justify their acceptability in modern system of medicine. One of the major problems faced by the herbal industry is the unavailability of rigid quality control profiles for herbal materials and their formulations. Regulatory bodies have laid down the standardization procedures and specifications for Ayurvedic preparations. The World Health Organization (WHO) has appreciated the importance of medicinal plants for public health care in developing nations and has evolved guidelines to support the member states in their efforts to formulate national policies on traditional medicine and to study their potential usefulness including evaluation, safety, and efficacy (Organisation Mondiale De La Sante, 1992). Peperomia pellucida (Fig 1) is a commonly known as Shiny Bush or silver bush, fleshy tropical annual, shallow-rooted herb, usually growing to a height of about 15 to 45 cm. It is characterized by fibrous roots, succulent stems, shiny, heart-shaped, fleshy leaves and tiny, dot-like seeds attached to several fruiting spikes. It has a mustard-like odor when crushed. P. pellucida plant possesses various pharmacological properties like depressant of Central Nervous System (Khan, 2007) etc. There are popular descriptions of this plant to lower cholesterol levels or used on proteinuria and …