ABSTRACT
Objective: To develop a sensitive and rapid liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS) method for the simultaneous determination of wogonin, coptisine, berberine, palmatine, jatrorrhizine, phellodendrine, magnoflorine, and wogonoside in rat plasma and to evaluate the pharmacokinetic characteristics of Huanglian Jiedu Decoction (HJD). Methods: LC separation was performed on an Acquity HSS T3 column (100 mm × 2.1 mm, 1.8 μm) using gradient elution with the mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile and 0.1% formic acid water. The detection was accomplished by using positive electrospray ionization in multiple-reaction monitoring mode. Plasma samples were pretreated by protein precipitation. Results: The method showed a good linearity over a wide concentration range (r2 > 0.99). The lower limits of quantification were 0.20 ng/mL for coptisine and phellodendrine, 0.48 ng/mL for berberine, 0.10 ng/mL for jatrorrhizine, 0.32 ng/mL for magnoflorine, 0.30 ng/mL for palmatine, and 4.80 ng/mL for wogonin and wogonoside, respectively. The intra- and inter-day precision of the analytes was less than 12.11%, while the accuracy was between -14.46% and 4.86%. The mean recovery of all the analytes ranged from 93.10% to 110.91%. Conclusion: This validated method offers the advantages of high sensitivity. It is successfully applied to evaluating the pharmacokinetic properties of HJD. © 2014 Tianjin Press of Chinese Herbal Medicines.