Simultaneous determination of the 10 major components of Da-Cheng-Qi decoction in dog plasma by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry

A liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method was developed for the simultaneous determination of the 10 major components of Da-Cheng-Qi decoction (rhein. emodin, aloe-emodin, chrysophanol, rheochrysidin, naringin, naringenin, hesperidin, magnolol and honokiol) in dog plasma. Plasma samples were spiked with internal standard (ibuprofen), acidified with HCl and extracted twice by liquid-liquid extraction using ethyl acetate. Separation was performed on a YMC-Pack ODS-A C-18 column (5 mu m, 150 mm x 4.6 mm) and a C-18 guard column (5 mu m, 4.0 mm x 2.0 mm) with methanol-water (92:8. v/v) at a flow rate of 0.3 mL/min. The LC/MS system was operated under the multiple reaction monitoring mode using electrospray ionization in the negative ion mode. All analytes showed good linearity over a wide concentration range (r>0.99). The linear range of the calibration curves was 5000-19.53 ng/mL for rhein; 400-3.13 ng/mL for emodin; 800-3.13 ng/mL for aloe-emodin, chrysophanol, naringin, naringenin. hesperidin, magnolol and honokiol; 160-0.63 ng/mL for rheochrysidin. The lower limit of quantification was: 19.53 ng/mL for rhein; 3.13 ng/mL for emodin, aloe-emodin, chrysophanol, naringin, naringenin. hesperidin, magnolol and honokiol; 0.63 ng/mL for rheochrysidin. The overall mean accuracy for the 10 major components of Da-Cheng-Qi decoction was 90.40-108.60%. Intra-day and inter-day precision was <= 12.43% and <= 11.32%, respectively. We conclude that this method is appropriate for simultaneous determination of the 10 major components of Da-Cheng-Qi decoction in dog plasma and the investigation of the pharmacokinetics of Da-Cheng-Qi decoction in dog. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.