Absorption and transportation of flavonoids in Herb Epimedii across Caco-2 monolayer model / 中草药

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the absorption and transportation of flavonoids in Herb Epimedii by using Caco-2 monolayer model. Methods Caco-2 cell monolayer model was used to study the bi-direction transport of icariin, epimedin A, epimedin B, epimedin C, and baohuoside Ⅰ. The concentration of the five flavonoids in cell culture medium was measured by UPLC and the apparent permeability coefficients (Papp) were calculated. Results The absorptive permeability coefficients (PAB) of icariin, epimedin A, epimedin B, epimedin C, and baohuoside Ⅰ were 5.91?10-7, 3.22?10-7, 2.76?10-7, 4.23?10-7, and 1.46?10-6 cm/s, respectively. Except baohuoside Ⅰ, the other four flavonodes had lower permeabilities, and the secretive permeabilities (PBA) of all the flavonoids were larger than their absorptive permeabilities. Among them, the PBA of baohuoside Ⅰ was 9.8 times as much as the PAB. Conclusion The results suggest that the intestinal absorption of the five flavonoids is lower, which might have efflux mechanism by transporters, and the absorption of monloglycoside (e.g. baohuoside Ⅰ) is better than that of diglycoside (e.g. icariin) and triglycoside (e.g. epimedin A, epimedin B, and epimedin C).