A selective and sensitive liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method was developed for the first time for the identification and quantification of curdione in rabbit plasma after vaginal drug administration and intravenous administration of zedoary turmeric oil (ZTO) solution (10 mg/kg). The analysis was performed on a triple-quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer with multiple reaction monitoring mode via electrospray ionization source in positive ionization mode. After mixing with internal standard diazepam, plasma samples were extracted with ethyl ether-acetic ether (1:1, v/v). Chromatographic separation was carried out on a C18 column with gradient elution using a mixture of water and acetonitrile (both containing 0.1% formic acid) as mobile phases. Linearity ranged over 1.06-106 and 10.6-530 ng/mL (r ≥ 0.995) with the lower limit of quantfication 1.06 ng/mL. The intra- and inter-day precision relative standard deviation values were <12% and the accuracy relative error was from -10.6 to -6.1% at all quality control sample levels. The method was applied to a study of the pharmacokinetics of curdione after vaginal drug administration and intravenous administration of ZTO.
Keywords: LC-MS/MS; curdione; pharmacokinetics; vaginal drug administration; zedoary turmeric oil.
Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.