Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

A UHPLC-Q-Exactive-Orbitrap-MS method for simultaneous determination of three flavonoids from Parasitic loranthus and their pharmacokinetics in rat plasma

Ying Cui^1,2, Lingling Li^1,2 , Shu Yang¹, Hongli Wang¹, Jing Feng¹, Kai Ma³, Deen Han¹

¹School of Pharmacy, Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou; ²Collaborative Innovation Center for Respiratory Disease Diagnosis and Treatment & Chinese Medicine Development of Henan Province, 156 Jinshui East Road, Zhengzhou 450046; ³Henan Province Chinese Medicine Research Institute, Zhengzhou, China.

For correspondence:- Lingling Li Email: cyexin@126.com

Accepted: 18 September 2019 Published: 31 October 2019

Citation: Cui Y, Li L, Yang S, Wang H, Feng J, Ma K, et al. A UHPLC-Q-Exactive-Orbitrap-MS method for simultaneous determination of three flavonoids from Parasitic loranthus and their pharmacokinetics in rat plasma. Trop J Pharm Res 2019; 18(10):2175-2182 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v18i10.25

© 2019 The authors.
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Abstract

Purpose: To develop and validate a chromatographic method for the simultaneous determination of plasma levels of rutin, avicularin and quercitrin using UHPLC-Q-Exactive-Orbitrap-MS.

Methods: A sensitive, selective, and reliable UHPLC-Q-Exactive-Orbitrap-MS method was developed and validated for simultaneous determination of the three flavonoids, with puerarin as internal standard (IS). Plasma samples were first treated with methanol, and then acidified using hydrochloric acid (HCl) prior to liquid-liquid extraction with ethyl acetate. The flavonoids were separated on a Syncronis C18 column (100×2.1mm, 1.7 µm) using an elution gradient of acetonitrile and 0.1 % formic acid at a flow rate of 0.3 mL/min.

Results: A linear correlation was obtained for the three flavonoids over the investigated concentration range, with correlation coefficients > 0.9954. The values of validated lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) were 0.68, 1.42 and 2.54 ng/mL for rutin, avicularin and quercitrin, respectively. Intra- and inter-day precision (RSD) were < 10 %, while accuracy (RE) ranged from −3.76 to 4.04 %.

Conclusion: The proposed method has been successfully validated and is suitable for studying the pharmacokinetics of the three analytes in rats treated with parasitic loranthus extract (PLE).

Keywords: Parasitic loranthus, Rutin, Avicularin, Quercitrin, UHPLC-Q-Exactive-Orbitrap-MS, Pharmacokinetics