Development of a sensitive LC-MS/MS method for simultaneous quantification of eleven constituents in rat serum and its application to a pharmacokinetic study of a Chinese medicine Shengmai injection

摘要

A sensitive LC-MS/MS method was developed and validated for simultaneous quantification of 11 constituents, ginsenoside Rg1, Re, Rf, Rg2, Rb1, Rd, Rc, ophiopogonin D, schisandrin, schisandrol B and schizandrin B, in rat serum using digoxin as the internal standard (IS). The serum samples were pretreated and extracted with a two-step liquid-liquid extraction. Chromatographic separation was achieved on a C-18 analytical column with a proper gradient elution using 0.02% acetic acid aqueous solution and 0.02% acetic acid-acetonitrile as mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.5 mL/min. MS detection was performed using multiple reaction monitoring via an electrospray ionization source. Good linearity was observed in the validated concentration range for every analyte (r(2) 0.9929), and the lower limits of quantitation of the analytes were in the range of 0.044-1.190 ng/mL in rat serum. Intra- and inter-day precisions were <14.2%. The accuracy expressed as recovery was within the range of 85.1-112.8%. The extraction recoveries were >75.8%.The validated method was successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study of all analytes in rats after single intravenous administration of Shengmai injection. Copyright (c) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.