Phytochemical profiling of Balarista formulation by GC-MS analysis

GC-MS analysis of different fractions of in-house Balarista formulation (IBF) and marketed Balarista formulations (M1, M2, M3 and M4) confirmed the presence of various active metabolites. The database of National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) library was used to identify these compounds. This study revealed the presence of benzoic acid as a predominant compound in n-hexane fraction of M3 (94.69%), M2 (61.99%) and M4 (56.67%); ethyl acetate fraction of M2 (40.68%); methanol fraction of M2 (49.10%) and M3 (24.02%) formulations. Hexan-2-ol (72.49%); 3,3-Bis(4-hydroxy-3-methylphenyl)-1H-indol-2-one (71.40%); 5-(Hydroxymethyl)furan-2-carbaldehyde (64.52%); Propan-2-ol (57.34%); 1,3,3-Trimethyl-2-oxabicyclo[2.2.2]octane (52.35%); (2 R,3S,4S,5R,6R)-2,3,4,5,6,7-Hexahydroxyheptanal (26.47%) are the other major compounds. Identification of benzoic acid in marketed formulations indicates indiscriminate use of sodium benzoate, which was determined as benzoic acid equivalents. Detection of benzoic acid at high concentration may affect the therapeutic efficacy of these formulations.