Identification and quantification of adulteration in Garcinia cambogia commercial products by chromatographic and spectrometric methods

Species of genus Garcinia are rich sources of bioactive constituents with antimicrobial, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective and anti-HIV activities. Commercial products of Garcinia cambogia are used as anti-obesity drugs with increasing market demand. Because of the high price of its products, it can be adulterated with similar lower-priced species. This study was designed to develop and validate an accurate and efficient method for the detection of any adulteration (G. indica) in G. cambogia products. For this purpose, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to analyse the ethanolic fruit rind extracts of G. cambogia and G. indica, their formulations of 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 and 95% G. indica with G. cambogia, and 11 G. cambogia commercial products. The analytical methods were validated by quality assurance parameters of linearity, sensitivity, precision and accuracy. Two marker peaks were detected in G. indica fruit extract, whereas G. cambogia did not show these peaks. The detected peaks were identified as anthocyanins; cyanidin-3-O-sambubioside and cyanidin-3-O-glucoside. In the study to determine the effect of pH and temperature on the stability of its anthocyanin content, HPLC analysis of G. indica extract showed the highest content at pH 1 and 50°C. Using two different mobile phases, the limits of detection (LOD) for cyanidin-3-O-sambubioside and cyanidin-3-O-glucoside were 0.036 and 0.059, and 0.022 and 0.033 mg kg^–1, respectively. Furthermore, the inter-day precision (< 3.2%) confirmed that the applied analytical method fulfils the required criteria of Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC). From this study, it was found that the HPLC method used for the detection of adulteration in G. cambogia products is rapid and accurate.