[Research in rheological properties of four types of ophthalmic preparations].

This study is prepared to provide the basis of rheological parameters for the additional quality standard of ophthalmic gels, the rheological properties of the ophthalmic gels and the other three types of ophthalmic preparations. The medicines were compared through the study of the rheological properties for four types of ophthalmic preparations. The cone-plate rheometer was used to determine the dynamic and steady rheological parameters of four types of ophthalmic preparations. The similarities and differences of the measured results were analyzed to summarize the rheological indexes and parameters which are applied to distinguish the ophthalmic gels and the other types of ophthalmic preparations. 1 The elastic modulus should be greater than the viscous modulus for the ophthalmic gels in the range of the linear viscoelastic region. 2 The ophthalmic gels should be shear thinning non-Newtonian fluid with a certain yield stress and thixotropy. 3 The dynamic viscosity of the ophthalmic gels should be greater than 0.5 Pa·S at the temperature of 25 ℃ with the 50 s-1 shear rate. The typical rheological indexes and parameters of the ophthalmic gels were proposed in this article. The determination methods are simple and feasible. The rheological indexes and parameters have an important significance in the prescription design, production technology and quality control of the ophthalmic gels.

Determination and pharmacokinetic study of oxymatrine and its metabolite matrine in human plasma by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry.

There is little information about the pharmacokinetics of oxymatrine (OMT) and its metabolite matrine (MT) after i.v. administration of OMT in human. Therefore a specific and sensitive liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method was established for the determination and pharmacokinetic study of OMT and its metabolite MT in human plasma after i.v. infusion administration of 600 mg of OMT in 100 ml of 5% glucose injection in 0.5 h. The analysis was carried out on a Lichrospher-CN column (250 mmx4.6 mm, i.d., 5 microm, Merck) with mobile phase of methanol-ammonium acetate (20 mmol/l; 85:15, v/v) pumped at a flow rate of 1.0 ml/min. The tandem mass detection was made with electrospray ionization in positive ion selected reaction monitoring mode, with argon collision-induced dissociation ion transitions m/z 265.2 to m/z 265.2 for OMT at 25 eV, m/z 249.2 to m/z 249.2 for MT at 25 eV and m/z 340.2 to m/z 324.0 at 35 eV for the internal standard (papaverine), respectively. The assay was validated to be accurate and precise for the analysis in the concentration range of 1.0-40,000 ng/ml for both OMT and MT with the LOD being 0.5 and 0.2 ng/ml, respectively, when 0.25 ml of human plasma sample was processed with papaverine as internal standard. The pharmacokinetic study was made with 10 healthy male Chinese subjects. The plasma concentration time profiles of OMT and MT obtained were best fitted with two-compartment and one-compartment models, respectively. The main pharmacokinetic parameters found for OMT and MT after i.v. infusion were as follows: Cmax (20,519+/-7581) and (247+/-45) ng/ml, Tmax (0.5+/-0.1) and (5.6+/-1.7) h, AUC0-t (20,360+/-5205) and (3817+/-610) ng h/ml, AUC0-infinity (20,436+/-5188) and (3841+/-615) ng h/ml, t1/2 (2.17+/-0.49) and (9.43+/-0.62) h, respectively. The CL/F and Vd/F of OMT were (43.8+/-10.8) l h-1 and (70.1+/-26.6) l, respectively. Therefore only a small amount of OMT was reduced to MT following i.v. administration of OMT judged by the AUCs.

Determination of oleanolic acid in human plasma and study of its pharmacokinetics in Chinese healthy male volunteers by HPLC tandem mass spectrometry.

A highly selective and sensitive HPLC-ESI-MS-MS method was developed for the determination of oleanolic acid in human plasma. The oleanolic acid and glycyrrhetinic acid (internal standard) were recovered from plasma with ethyl acetate liquid-liquid extraction. The organic extracts were dried under a stream of warm nitrogen, reconstituted in mobile phase and injected into a Zorbax-Extend ODS analytical column (150 mm x 4.6 mm i.d., 5 microm), with the mobile phase consisting of methanol-ammonium acetate (32.5 mM) (85:15, v/v) pumped at a flow rate of 1.0 ml/min, and 30% of the eluent was split into a MS system with electrospray ionization tandem mass (ESI-MS-MS) detection in negative ion mode. The tandem mass detection was performed on a Finnigan Surveyor LC-TSQ Quantum Ultra AM tandem mass spectrometer operated in selected reaction monitoring mode. The parent to product ion combinations of m/z 455.4-->455.4 and 469.3-->425.2 at 38 V 1.5 mTorr Ar CID were used to quantify oleanolic acid and glycyrrhetinic acid, respectively. The assay was validated in the concentration range of 0.02-30.0 ng/ml for oleacolic acid when 0.5 ml of plasma was processed. The precision of the assay (expressed as relative standard deviation, R.S.D.%) was less than 15% at all concentrations levels within the tested range and adequate accuracy, and the limit of quantification was 0.02 ng/ml. The established method was applied for the pharmacokinetics study of oleanolic acid capsules in 18 healthy male Chinese volunteers with the mean values of C(max), T(max), AUC(0-48), AUC(0-infinity), t(1/2,) CL/F, and V/F of oleanolic acid after p.o. a single 40 mg dose obtained were 12.12 +/- 6.84 ng/ml, 5.2 +/- 2.9h, 114.34 +/- 74.87 ng h/ml, 124.29 +/- 106.77 ng h/ml, 8.73 +/- 6.11 h, 555.3 +/- 347.7 L/h, and 3371.1 +/- 1,990.1 L, respectively.