A simple, rapid and sensitive liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectroscopy (LC-MS/MS) method was developed and validated for the determination of ethyl gallate, a pharmacologically active constituent isolated from Lagerstroemia speciosa (Linn.) Pers. This method was used to examine the pharmacokinetics of ethyl gallate and its major metabolite gallic acid in rat plasma using propyl gallate as an internal standard. After precipitation of the plasma proteins with acetonitrile, the analytes were separated on a Zorbax SB-C(18) column (3.5 microm, 2.1 x 50 mm) with an isocratic mobile phase consisted of methanol-acetonitrile-10 mM ammonium acetate (10 : 25 : 65, v/v/v) containing 0.1% formic acid at a flow rate of 0.25 mL/min. The Agilent G6410A triple quadrupole LC/MS system was operated under the multiple-reaction monitoring mode using the electrospray ionization technique in negative mode. The lower limits of quantification of gallic acid and ethyl gallate of the method were 0.5 and 1.0 ng/mL. The intra-day and inter-day accuracy and precision of the assay were less than 8.0%. This method has been applied successfully to a pharmacokinetic study involving the intragastric administration of ethyl gallate to rats.
2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.