Development and Validation of Ultra Visible Spectrophotometric Method for the Estimation of Thymoquinone

Aim: The work mainly focuses on developing a robust UV-Visible spectroscopic method for qualitative and quantitative analysis of thymoquinone and this will open to many possibilities in exploiting the wonders of this bioactive molecule.

Study Design: UV-vis Spectrophotometric method development for thymoquinone.

Place and Duration of Study: Department of Pharmaceutics, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University Campus, Nagpur, India.

Methodology: To find out λmax and validate the developed method using Double beam UV – visible spectrophotometer module (JASCO V-630).

Results: The thymoquinone was found to be soluble in methanol. The absorption maximum (λmax) was found to be 252 nm. The good linearity was found to be within concentration range of 2-10 μg/ml with correlation coefficient (r2) >0.99 and regression equation of the curve was found to be y = 0.0173x − 0.0394 at 252 nm. The precision (intra-day and inter-day) data represents good reproducibility with % RSD lower than 2.0% which assured that method is précised. Mean recovery value at different concentrations was found to be higher than 90%, indicates accuracy of the method. LOD and LOQ for thymoquinone were reported and were found to be 0.016 μg/ml and 0.0531μg/ ml 252 nm.

Conclusion: The developed method was found to be simple, specific, economic, reliable, accurate, precise, and reproducible used as a quality control tool for analysis of pure thymoquinone and thymoquinone in formulations.