Avaliação de parâmetros físico químicos de qualidade de medicamentos fitoterápicos a base de passiflora SSP.

Abstract

Phytotherapics are medicines whose active principles are exclusively derived from plant drugs. For all medicines, including herbal medicines, quality control is essential, as serious problems can arise as to the marketing of poor quality or even adulterated products. The genus Passiflora species are widely used in folk medicine with different indications, being Passiflora alata and Passiflora incarnata, official species described in the Brazilian and European Pharmacopoeia, employed more frequently as sedative and tranquilizer in several countries. In Brazil the phytotherapics based on Passiflora spp. are among the 10 herbal medicines most used by the population. Thus, the present work has proposed to verify the physical-chemical quality parameters of phytotherapeutic medicines based on Passiflora spp. Five samples, encoded as S (S1, S2, S3) formulated only with P. incarnata extracts and A (samples A1, A2) for medicinal products formulated in association with other plant species were investigated. Samples were evaluated for labeling, average weight, hardness, disintegration time, and flavonoids presence. The data obtained revealed that all samples were regular for the analyzed labeling items, two samples (A1 and A2) did not show adequate disintegration. Regarding the tests of average weight and hardness, the samples were in compliance with the pharmacopoeial specifications. Regarding the flavonoids presence, although the samples did not react positively to the Shinoda test, they developed a positive identification reaction against the FeCl3 and NaOH tests. Thus, we can conclude that two of the three samples evaluated (A1 and A2) presented problems of physicochemical quality.