Patent ID: 7435433

Claim:
An improved process for the isolation of arjunic acid from the bark of Terminalia arjuna which comprises the steps of: a). drying and grinding the Terminalia arjuna bark; b). defattening the Terminalia arjuna bark in a first organic solvent selected from the group consisting of petroleum spirit, hexane, benzene, toluene, and dichloromethane; c). extracting the defattened bark with a polar second organic solvent, at a temperature in the range of 20-40° C. and removing the polar second organic solvent, under vacuum, at a temperature in the range of 35-45° C. to obtain a crude arjunic acid rich fraction; d). dissolving the above said crude arjunic acid rich fraction in water and further extracting it with a third organic solvent selected from the group consisting of dichloromethane, dichloroethane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, and diethyl ether followed by; e). washing the resultant fraction obtained in step d). with water, drying it and removing the third organic solvent, under vacuum at a temperature in the range of from 35 to 45° C.; and f). subjecting the fraction from step e). to Vacuum Liquid Chromatography (VLC) followed by; g). gradient elution of the VLC column with mixtures of at least two solvents thereby yielding the compound arjunic acid.