20(S) protopanaxatriol is the main metabolite of notoginsenoside R1, ginsenoside Rg1, ginsenoside Re in Panax notoginseng and has significant activities. A ultra high performance liquid mass spectrometry method has been developed and validated for the simultaneous determination of notoginsenoside R₁ (R1), ginsenoside Rg₁ (Rg₁), ginsenoside Re (Re) and 20(S) protopanaxatriol (PPT) in beagle dog plasma after oral administration of a Panax notoginseng saponin preparation. After the addition of the internal standard (digoxin), plasma samples were subjected to liquid-liquid extraction with acetone and methanol and separated on a 100 × 2.1 mm ACQUITY 1.7 μm C₁₈ column (Waters, USA), with acetonitrile and water as the mobile phase, within a runtime of 7.0 min. The analytes were detected without interference in Selected Reaction Monitoring mode with a change in the electrospray ionization from positive to negative. The detection limits were 0.01 to 0.04 mg/L and the calibration curves of the peak areas for the four ingredients were linear over four orders of magnitude with a correlation coefficient greater than 0.9957. The intra-day and inter-day precision values (relative standard deviation, RSD, %) were within 10.25% and 13.51%, respectively, and the accuracy (relative error, RE, %) was less than 7.81%. The validated method was successfully applied to a comparative pharmacokinetic study of four saponins in beagle dogs after oral administration of a Panax Notoginseng Saponins preparation. The pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated with DAS 3.20. The Tmax and Cmax values indicate a dose-dose relationship between the saponins (R1, Rg1, and Re) and their sapogenin (PPT).
Keywords: 20(S) protopanaxatriol (PPT); Ginsenoside Re; Ginsenoside Rg(1); Notoginsenoside R(1); Pharmacokinetics; Ultra high performance liquid mass spectrometry.
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