α ethinylestradiol

The plant drugs selected for evaluation were the barks of Si, Sr and Ta and roots of Cr. The plants parts were procured from M/s Indian Herbs Limited, Saharanpur, India, authenticated and processed to prepare standardized dry aqueous or aqueous alcoholic extracts. All the aqueous extracts were prepared using the following procedure: Individual plant parts were dried and pulverized, water was added to the powder in a ratio of 1:4 and the mixture was boiled for 2 h. The extract obtained was bought to room temperature and then gravity filtered through a #100 nylon mesh. The procedure was repeated thrice and the three filtrates were collected and spray dried for further use. The extracts were stored at room temperature in a dessicator containing sodium bicarbonate to avoid moisture. The extractive value of the plants was Si - 20%, Sr - 16.66%, Cr - 10% and Ta - 20%. The doses of the extracts were extrapolated from the highest dose advocated for humans in therapeutic practice.[4 18 19 20 ]
Aśokāriṣṭa (marketed formulation) was purchased from an Ayurvedic pharmacy (Batch Number BV0002). The test drugs were administered as a suspension in 0.5% carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC). 17 α ethinyl estradiol (Sigma Aldrich, USA) was administered by dissolving it in a minimal amount of 95% ethanol and diluted to the final working concentration in olive oil.[17 (link)]