Corynoline and acetycorynoline are active compounds of Corydalis bungeana Turcz. with various pharmacological effects such as sedation, anti-leptospira and liver injury protection effects. A specific, simple and sensitive UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS method was developed and validated for the pharmacokinetic study of corynoline and acetycorynoline in rat plasma. Corynoline and acetycorynoline were extracted from plasma samples by liquid-liquid extraction. The analysis was carried out on an Agilent SB-C18 column (1.8 μm, 50 mm×2.1mm) with the mobile phase of acetonitrile-0.1% formic acid (80:20, v/v). The detection was performed on a triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer by multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode via electrospray ionization (ESI) source in positive mode. The current UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS assay was validated for linearity, intra-day and inter-day precisions, accuracy, extraction recovery and stability. The lower limits of quantification were 0.10 ng/mL for corynoline and 0.353 ng/mL for acetycorynoline. Intra-day and inter-day precision were less than 12.3% and accuracy ranged from 0.18% to 14.9%. The mean extraction recoveries of analytes and internal standard (IS) from rat plasma were all more than 76.2%. This validated method was successfully applied to pharmacokinetic study in rats after oral administration of corynoline, acetycorynoline and the extract of Corydalis bungeana Turcz.
Keywords: Acetycorynoline; Corydalis bungeana Turcz.; Corynoline; Pharmacokinetics; UHPLC–ESI–MS/MS.
Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.