ABSTRACT
Ocimum sanctum L., with phenolic acids, flavonoids, propenyl phenols and terpenoids as active pharmacological constituents, is a prominent therapeutic herb. It is used as an ingredient in many herbal formulations. Therefore, development of an analytical method for simultaneous determination of bioactive compounds of O. sanctum is required for quality control of herbal formulations. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a new, rapid, sensitive and selective ultra high performance liquid chromatograhy electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS) strategy for simultaneous determination of bioactive markers including phenolic acids, flavonoids, propenyl phenol and terpenoid in the leaf extract and marketed herbal formulations of O. sanctum. The developed UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS method was applied to determine the content of twenty three markers in the eight leaf extracts and three marketed herbal formulations of O. sanctum.
