Abstract

CARMONA FERNANDEZ, Rolando; LOPEZ HERNANDEZ, Orestes Darío  and  GONZALES SANABIA, María Lidia. Association of the refractive index and the total solids in aqueous extracts from Calendula officinalis L. (caléndula) and Ocimum sanctum L. (albahaca morada). Rev Cubana Plant Med [online]. 2009, vol.14, n.3, pp. 23-28. ISSN 1028-4796.

INTRODUCTION: the aqueous extracts from Ocimum sanctum L. and Calendula officinalis L. are important to produce herbal medicines. The concentration is one of the fundamental steps in the process of obtaining dry aqueous extracts. At pilot and industrial scales, in which the extract volumes are higher, it is very economical and feasible to use the refractive index as quality control parameter since it provides an indirect criterion about the extract concentration. OBJECTIVE: to study the behaviour of the refractive index against the total solid concentration variations and thus to estimate the equation describing this process in order to make the standardization of the extract and the concentration step easier. METHODS: refractive index measurements at various total solid concentrations were made. RESULTS: the best fitted curves as well as the statistical demonstration of their significance and that of the models used for O. sanctum and C. officinalis aqueous extracts were estimated, which allows using these equations to facilitate the quality control in the concentration process. CONCLUSIONS: the equations based on the linear fit models make it possible to determine total solids for both aqueous extracts by using the refractive index.

Keywords : Calendula officinalis; Ocimun sanctum; Ocimun tenuiflorum; aqueous extract; refractive index.

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