Simultaneous determination of seven active ingredients in rat plasma by UPLC-MS/MS and application in pharmacokinetic studies after oral administration of scutellaria-coptis herb couple

摘要

A sensitive and rapid method for simultaneous determination of baicalin, baicalein, wogonoside, wogonin, berberine, copstisine and palmatine of Scutellaria baicalensis, and Coptidis rhizoma extract in rat plasma based on ultra high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) was developed. Plasma samples were processed by protein precipitation with methanol. Chromatographic analysis was performed on an Acquity BEH C18 column (100 mm x 2.1 mm, 1.7 A mu m) using a mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile and water (containing 0.1 % formic acid). Electrospray ionization in positive ion mode and multiple reaction monitoring were used to identify and quantify active components. All calibration curves gave good linearity (r > 0.991) over the concentration range from 0.72 to 375 ng/mL for all components. Recovery was 58.11-102.83 % depending on the analyte, and inter-day variability was less than 13 %. The lower limit of quantification for all compounds was between 0.82 and 1.33 ng/mL. The intra- and inter-day precision and accuracy of the quality control samples at three concentrations showed a parts per thousand currency sign14.7 % relative standard deviation and 86.6-105.5 % accuracy. The validated method was successfully applied to determine the concentrations of seven bioactive components in rat plasma after oral administration of Radix scutellariae and Coptidis rhizoma extract.