A rapid, simple and accurate method was developed for the determination of chamaechromone in rat plasma using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS). Rosuvastatin was used as the internal standard. The plasma samples were extracted by liquid-liquid extraction with ethyl acetate. Chromatographic separation was performed on Xbridge™ C(18) column (2.1mm×50mm, 3.5μm) with linear gradient elution using water and methanol, both of which were acidified with 0.1% aqueous formic acid. The flow rate was 0.4mL/min and the total run time was 6min. Detection was performed on a triple-quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer using positive ion mode electrospray ionization (ESI) in the multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. The MS/MS ion transitions monitored were m/z 543.3→198.9 and 481.9→258.3 for chamaechromone and rosuvastatin, respectively. Good linearity was observed over the concentration range of 8-6400ng/mL in 0.1mL of rat plasma. The lowest concentration (8ng/mL) in the calibration curve was estimated as LLOQ with both deviation of accuracy and RSD of precision <20% (n=6). Intra-assay and inter-assay variability were less than 11% in plasma. This method was successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study of chamaechromone in rats after intravenous (5mg/kg) and oral (100mg/kg) administration. Following oral administration the concentration-time curve of chamaechromone exhibited a biphasic absorption profile. The maximum mean concentration in plasma (C(max), 795.9±14.6ng/L) was achieved at 11.3±0.8h (T(max)) and the area under curve (AUC(0-60)) was 6976.7±1026.9ngh/L. After single intravenously administration of chamaechromone, the essential pharmacokinetic parameters C(max), AUC(0-48) were 4300.7±113.6ng/L and 3672.1±225.4ngh/L, respectively. The result showed that the compound was poorly absorbed with an absolute bioavailability being approximately 8.9%.
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