Process for the preparation of a extract rich in bacosides from the herb bacopa monniera

Abstract

The present invention provides a novel process for the preparation of bacosides enriched fraction in a non-hygroscopic form the extract of , the said process comprising the steps of drying freshly harvested herb in a hot air oven at 37-42° C., powdering and sieving the dried herb to obtain powder of 30-40 mesh size, defatting the powdered herb with hexane in a modified soxhlet extractor, extracting the defatted powdered herb with acetone, again extracting the same herb with methanol to obtain an extract containing bacosides, concentrating the extract to one twentieth of its original volume under reduced pressure, gradually adding the concentrated extract to acetone for precipitating the bacosides, filtering the bacosides in a Nutsche type vacuum filter, dissolving the crude bacoside mass into 2-10 parts water, extracting the bacoside solution with n-butanol to selectively transfer the bacosides to the solvent phase, separating and concentrating the solvent phase under vacuum to obtain semi-dry mass, dissolving the semi dried mass into 2-10 parts water, adding and stirring 1-5% of &bgr;-cyclodextrin to stabilize the bacosides, spray drying the stabilized bacoside solution by maintaining hot air temperature at 90-110° C., to obtain a stable free flowing fraction of rich in bacosides.