Evaluation of stability and determination of shelf life of an herbal food supplement: Naturovita

Abstract

Herbal formulations are easily prone to deterioration of the active compounds during storage over a period of time. The stability study helps in understanding the physical and phytochemical changes associated with natural product formulation. The present study was conducted to determine the shelf life of the herbal formula, Naturovita which is used as a food supplement to support respiratory health. The accelerated stability study (Temperature: 40 ºC ± 2 and relative humidity (RH): 75% ± 5) was conducted as per ICH guidelines. The change in the organoleptic, physico-chemical properties, proximate, active phytochemical content and microbial load were verified over a period of 6 months at an interval of 0th, 2nd, 4th and 6th month. The results from various analysis performed were taken in consideration for the determination of extrapolated shelf life of Naturovita. The extrapolated shelf-life value was calculated with 10% degradation of the physico-chemical parameters at an accelerated condition. The shelf life of Naturovita formula was found to be 24.08 months (2.01 years).