Quality Assessment of Gloriosa superba L. Tuber Natural Populations of Telangana, India Based on Physico-Chemical Screening and Colchicine Quantification

Gloriosa superba L. tuber, a source of colchicine, is widely used in Ayurveda for treatment of various diseases. Survey of the medicinal plant, having desired metabolite content, from natural forests is crucial for production of quality planting material. Quality assessment of the natural populations are important to control the quality, authencity and purity of the medicinal plants. The present study aimed to assess the quality and quantity of colchicine in the sixteen natural populations of Telangana G. superba (TGS) tubers. All the tubers qualified the physicochemical properties viz. Total Ash (2.4 to 4.8%), Acid Insoluble Ash (0.12 to 0.54%), Foreign Matter (0.10 to 0.46%), Water Soluble Extractive (15.16 to 22.91%) and Alcohol Soluble Extractive (6.08 to 22.13%) as per Ayurveda Pharmacopeia of India which proved the authenticity and quality of the tubers for use in various formulations. A dveloped HPLC method has been validated for linearity, limit of quantification, limit of detection, accuracy, precision and robustness for quantification of colchicine in tuber which revealed that the colchicine content significantly (P ˂ 0.05)varied from 0.03 to 0.55% in tubers on dry weight basis. Significant correlations (P ˂ 0.05) have also been found between physicochemical and colchicine content of the screened populations. Out of sixteen populations of TGS, three natural populations (TGS14, TGS04 and TGS08) are found promising, based on rich colchicine content, for future conservation as well as commercial cultivation programme.