Simultaneous determination of catechin, epicatechin and epicatechin gallate in rat plasma by LC–ESI-MS/MS for pharmacokinetic studies after oral administration of Cynomorium songaricum extract

• Published in: Journal of chromatography. B, Analytical technologies in the biomedical and life sciences Analytical technologies in the biomedical and life sciences, 2012-01, Vol.880 (1), p.168-171
• Main Authors: Zhang, Qiu-Hong, Wang, Wen-Biao, Li, Jin, Chang, Yan-Xu, Wang, Yue-Fei, Zhang, Jishu, Zhang, Bo-Li, Gao, Xiu-Mei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Administration, Oral; Analysis; Analytical, structural and metabolic biochemistry; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Catechin; Catechin - analogs & derivatives; Catechin - blood; Catechin - pharmacokinetics; Catechins; Chromatography; Chromatography, Liquid - methods; Cynomorium - chemistry; Cynomorium songaricum Rupr; Drug Stability; Drugs, Chinese Herbal - administration & dosage; Epicatechin; Epicatechin gallate; Flow rate; Formic acid; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gallates; General pharmacology; LC–MS/MS; Medical sciences; oral administration; pharmacokinetics; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; Rats; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Recovery; Reproducibility of Results; scopoletin; Sensitivity and Specificity; Separation; Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization - methods; Tandem Mass Spectrometry - methods
• ISSN: 1570-0232; 1873-376X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jchromb.2011.11.021

► A sensitive LC–MS/MS method with a lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) of about 2ngmL−1 was firstly developed and validated for the simultaneous determination of three catechins (catechin, epicatechin and epicatechin gallate) in rat plasma. ► After single oral administration of 15.25gkg−1Cynomorium songaricum extract, Cmax of catechin, epicatechin and epicatechin gallate in rat plasma were respectively 86.69±38.65, 32.57±15.00 and 36.93±12.62ngmL−1 while Tmax values were respectively 0.15±0.09, 0.20±0.10 and 0.20±0.13h. ► The developed LC–MS/MS method was sensitive enough for pharmacokinetic study of catechins following oral administration of C. songaricum extract. A rapid and valid method was developed for simultaneous determination catechin, epicatechin and epicatechin gallate in rat plasmas using scopoletin (103ngmL−1) as an internal standard (IS). The separation was performed on Eclipse plus C18 column (100mm×4.6mm, 1.8μm) at a flow rate of 0.3mLmin−1, and acetonitrile–0.1% formic acid was used as mobile phase. The recoveries of three analytes and IS were more than 78.9%. The lower limits of quantitation (LLOQ) in rat plasma were 2.14, 2.38 and 2.08ngmL−1 respectively for catechin, epicatechin and epicatechin gallate. Intra-day and inter-day precisions were within 12%. The accuracies were more than 85%. After single oral administration of 15.25gkg−1Cynomorium songaricum extract, Cmax of catechin, epicatechin and epicatechin gallate in rat plasma were respectively 86.69±38.65, 32.57±15.00 and 36.93±12.62ngmL−1 while Tmax values were respectively 0.15±0.09, 0.20±0.10 and 0.20±0.13h. The results demonstrated that the present LC–MS/MS method was sensitive enough for pharmacokinetic study of catichins following oral administration of C. songaricum extract.