Simultaneous high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometric quantification of six bioactive components in rat plasma after oral administration of Yougui pill.

Yougui pills are a classic Chinese medicine that shows significant effects on nerve regeneration and neuroprotection in modern pharmacological studies. With a complex formula, Youngui pills have faced significant challenges in the fields of bioanalysis and pharmacokinetics in animals and human studies. In the present study, a specific and accurate high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometric method was developed and validated for the quantitative determination of the six bioactive components in rat plasma after oral administration of Yougui pills. Chromatographic separation was performed on a C18 column with a gradient elution system. Samples were analysed using positive ion mode with multiple reaction monitoring mode. The assay showed good linearity for all six bioactive components in the dynamic range of 0.50 to 50 ng/mL with acceptable intra- and inter-batch accuracy and precision. The lower limits of quantification were 0.50 ng/mL for all six bioactive components. The method was successfully applied to rat pharmacokinetics after oral administration of Yougui pills. All six bioactive components were detected in rat plasma, including songorine, benzoylhypaconitine, benzoylmesaconitine, neoline, karacoline and sweroside, while some other target compounds were not detected, such as rhmannioside A, loganin and cornuside I. After oral administration of Yougui pills at a dose of 2500 mg/kg, all six bioactive components rapidly absorbed, resulting in tmax values less than 1 h and relative lower Cmax values. The t1/2 values for songorine, benzoylhypaconitine, benzoylmesaconitine, neoline, karacoline and sweroside were calculated to be 2.62±0.67, 2.11±0.45, 1.94±0.35, 1.88±0.31, 2.07±0.44 and 1.59±0.30 h, which indicated that Yougui pills should be taken in multiple oral doses over a relatively short period. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.