Patent ID: 6833143
Filing Date: 2004-12-21
Classification: A61K

Abstract:
An improved process for preparing a bacosides-enriched fraction in a non-hygroscopic form from an extract of the herb Bacopa monniera, the said process comprising the steps of:(i) drying freshly harvested Bacopa monniera herb in an oven at a temperature range of 37-42Â° C. for a time period of 4-6 hrs; (ii) grinding and sieving the dried herb of step (i) in a disintegrator to obtain ground herb; (iii) extracting the ground herb of step (ii) with hexane in a modified soxhlet apparatus to obtain a hexane extract; (iv) removing the hexane extract formed in step (iii) from the soxhelt and drying the herb by circulating hot water; (v) extracting the dried herb of step (iv) with acetone for a time period of 4 to 8 hours to obtain an acetone extract containing unwanted color and non-bacoside constituents; (vi) extracting the acetone extracted herb of step (v) with methanol to obtain a methanol extract containing bacosides; (vii) concentrating the methanol extract of step (vi) under reduced pressure; (viii) adding the concentrated methanol extract of step (vii) gradually to acetone with stirring to effect preferential precipitation of a crude bacosides preparation; (ix) filtering the crude bacosides of step (viii) in a Nutsche type vacuum filter to obtain a crude bacoside residue; (x) dissolving the crude bacoside residue of step (ix) with water to obtain an aqueous solution; (xi) extracting the aqueous solution of step (x) with n-butanol to obtain a n-butanol extract; (xii) concentrating the n-butanol extract of step (xi) in a rotary vacuum evaporator under high vacuum to obtain a dry residue rich in bacosides; (xiii) dissolving the dry residue of step (xii) in 2 to 10 parts of water, adding 1 to wt. % of a non-toxic stabilizer under constant stirring to obtain a stable bacoside solution, and (xiv) spray drying the stable bacoside solution of step (xiii) at a temperature ranging between 90-110Â° C. to obtain a bacosides-enriched fraction in the form of a free flowing, stable and non-hygroscopic powder.