In this study, a sensitive hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) method was developed to determine pseudojervine (PJV), veratrosine (VTS), jervine (JV), veratramine (VTM), veramarine (VA) and veratroylzygadenine (VTG) in rat plasma. Separations were carried out using LC-MS/MS with a Chrom Matrix HP amide column (5 m, 10 cm × 3.0 mm i.d.). The mobile phases were (A) 0.01 mm formic acid and (B) acetonitrile. Good linearity was found for all analytes (R2 > 0.995) in the concentration range from 5 to 1000 μg/L with LLOQ at 5 μg/L for VTM and VTS; and from 1 to 1000 μg/L with LLOQ at 1 μg/L for PJV, JV, VA and VTG. Accuracy of the assay varied from 90.5 to 108.1%. The extraction recovery and matrix effect of six analytes ranged from 72.2 to 95.5% and from 79.2 to 98.4%. According to the stability test, six analytes in rat plasma were stable during the analysis process. On the basis of validation of the assay, the pharmacokinetics of the six steroid alkaloids were investigated after oral administration of Lilu extracts to rats.
Keywords: determination; hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography; pharmacokinetics; steroid alkaloid; veratrum patulum L.
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.