LAUSR

Trachyspermum ammi (L.) Sprague (Apiaceae), commonly known as 'Ajwain' is distributed throughout India. Ajwain fruits contain fibre, carbohydrates, phenolic acids, flavonoids and tannins. The fruits also yield a small amount of essential oil, with Thymol as the principal constituent. Ajwain has various pharmacological activities like anti-leishmanial, antimicrobial, cytotoxic, antispasmodic, nematocidal and anthelmintic. The fruits are of high therapeutic value; thus, it becomes quite essential to evaluate the quality of Trachyspermum ammi (L.) Sprague to authenticate and ensure its therapeutic and nutritional properties. The ethyl acetate fraction of T. ammi fruits exhibited the highest total phenolic and flavonoid content values of 149.55±1.19 mg rutin equivalent and 682.85±3.68 mg gallic acid equivalent, respectively. Metabolite profiling of the ethyl acetate fraction using ultra-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry analysis resulted in identifying 19 phytomolecules. A validated high performance thin-layer chromatography method was developed to quantify standard phytomolecules in the ethyl acetate fraction. The highest and lowest percentages of phytomarker were found to be Caffeic acid (5.51 ± 0.16 %w/w) and Gallic acid (1.29 ± 0.09 %w/w), respectively. This validated rapid, accurate, precise method for standardisation of T. ammi will be beneficial for its quality evaluation as well as the derived products. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.