Rosmarinic acid (RA), which is an ester of caffeic acid and 3,4-dihydroxyphenyllactic acid, is one of the most signifi-cant phenolic compound in the family Lamiaceae, which is restricted to the subfamily Nepetoideae, including Salvia species. Since various biological effects have been attributed to RA content of medicinal plants, has recently gained a great importance. We aimed to develop a rapid, simple and sensitive method for the quantitative determination of RA in extracts. The method was then practiced for comparative analysis of RA contents in seven Salvia species; S. candidissima, S. dichroantha, S. heldreichiana, S. sclarea, S. tomentosa, S. triloba and as well as the official sage S. officinalis. The methanol extracts obtained from the aerial parts of the plant materials were submitted to chroma-tographic separation on silica gel 60 F254 HPTLC plates with toluene: ethyl acetate:formic acid (5:4:1) as mobile pha-se and the densitometric detection of RA was carried out at 330 nm by HPTLC. Method was then validated in terms of accuracy, precision, repeatability, reproducibility, linearity, limit of detection/quantification, sensitivity and spe-cificity. The newly developed HPTLC method provides a powerful approach to estimate RA content which is a ge-nerally phytomarker in many plant extracts.
Keywords: HPTLC, Rosmarinic acid, Salvia, Sage, Lamiaceae.