ABSTRACT
Objective To identify the metabolites of loganin in rat urine through using ultra high performance liquid chromatography combined with triple TOF mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF/MS/MS) after oral administration of loganin;To summarize the metabolic pathway of loganin. Methods Rats were given a gavage with loganin. The urine samples were prepared by use of solid phase extraction (SPE). The chromatographic separation was performed on an UPLC C18 column with gradient elution program of acetonitrile and 0.1% formic acid aqueous as mobile phase. Dynamic background subtraction (DBS) technology was employed to trigger information dependent acquisition (IDA) to obtain the characteristic fragment ions of metabolites. Results MetabolitePilot software including several data processing methods were employed to speculate the structures of liganin metabolites and three metabolites were identified. Then, the metabolic pathway of loganin in rats was summarized. Conclusion The analytical method was simple, credible and highly-sensible, which is useful for screening and identifying trace constituents in vivo.