Abstract:
Background: Balabilvashunti decoction (BD) is an ayurvedic polyherbal formulation comprised
of three plant ingredients: rhizome of Zingiber officinale, whole plant of Sida alnifolia, and root
bark of Aegle marmelos. BD is widely utilized within clinical practice, particularly for addressing
geriatric diseases. However, despite its prevalence, patients encounter several limitations when
BD is prescribed. These include the substantial time required for decoction preparation, difficulty
in finding the correct raw materials due to adulteration and the short shelf-life of the prepared
decoction.
Objective: To develop modified dosage forms derived from BD to overcome the existing
limitations
Methods: BD was prepared according to the traditional decoction preparation method. From each
raw material 20 g was mixed with 1920 mL of water and boiled to reduce the volume up to 240
mL. The resulting liquid is the traditionally prepared BD; it was separately freeze-dried (FD) and
spray-dried (SD) to obtain FD powder and SD semisolid dosage forms respectively. Therefore, the
three dosage forms were in the form of liquid-BD, powder-FD and semisolid-SD. The bioactivities
of the BD were compared with SD and FD focusing on antioxidant activity assessed through 2,2
diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging activity, and ferric iron reducing power
assay (FRAP). Ascorbic acid was used as the standard for DPPH and FRAP assay.
Results: DPPH assay depicted IC50 values of 131.88±3.96 µg/mL, 190.23±2.22 µg/mL, 60.6±0.12
µg/mL and 1.17±0.05 µg/mL for FD, BD, SD and ascorbic acid respectively. In the FRAP assay
0.50 absorbance was recorded at concentrations of 2.33±0.24 mg/mL, 5.49±0.85 mg/mL,
3.59±0.40 mg/mL for the BD, SD, BD respectively when compared to ascorbic acid (81.44±7.62
µg/mL).
Conclusions: BD, FD and SD possess significant (p≤0.05) antioxidant activity. Overall, it can
conclude that the modified dosage forms FD and SD may have similar therapeutic effects as BD
based on the antioxidant activity.
