Quality control and stability over time of a composed hydroalchoolic tincture based on curcuma radix. Rosemary, boldo and maple

The tinctures are liquid formulations, usually obtained by fresh plants after a maceration in hydro alcoholic solvents. These products, are widely diffuse on the market and, with the exception of the mother tinctures that are included in the homeopathic medicines, all the others obtained by macerating the dried herbal drug in a hydro alcoholic solvent, can be considered foods. Their composition is strongly related to the quality of the raw material, to the extraction processes and to the stability over time of the main components. Aim of this work was to evaluate the content of the bioactive metabolites in composed hydro alcoholic tincture (CHT) constituted by four plant extracts: curcuma radix together with boldo and rosemary leaves and maple buds. Notably, this product, used as food supplement, was designed to facilitate and improve the physiological functions of liver and gall bladder. An HPLC/DAD/MS analytical procedures was developed to control the composition of the (CHT) tincture and the chromatographic profiles of each single plant extract in order to well detect the major metabolites. As expected the composition of this product was complex and characterized by the co-presence of more then 20 different phenolic compounds; the principal molecules were curcumina and demetossi e bisdesmetossi derivatives and also the contribute of the boldo leaves, with the glucorhamnosides of kaempherol, quercetin and isorhamnetin, was highlighted but without the detection of the aporfinic alkaloid, boldine. On the opposite, the absence of rosmarinic and carnosic acids, typical markers of the rosemary leaves, was also confirmed by the EI technique. Mainly due to the limited studies on maple composition, any marker was identified to recognize the presence of this plant in the CHT. Successively, without apply accelerated ageing protocols not suitable for these liquid forms, the stability over time was evaluated for CHT at ambient temperature up to 18 months highlighting an evident reduction of the curcuminoids content while the flavonoids were more stable. This study contribute to reduce the gap that exist in this area mainly due to the scant data available on the composition of the tinctures but almost all to their stability over time.