Title:A HPLC-DAD-MS/MS Method for Simultaneous Determination of Six Active Ingredients of Salviae Miltiorrhizae and Ligustrazine Hydrochloride Injection in Rat Plasma and its Application to Pharmacokinetic Studies
Volume: 22
Issue: 1
Author(s): Jianyang Pan, Luquan Zhang, Difeifei Xiong, Bailing Li and Haibin Qu*
Affiliation:
- Pharmaceutical Informatics Institute, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, 866, Yuhangtang Road, Hangzhou, 310058,China
Keywords:
HPLC-DAD-MS/MS, pharmacokinetic, Salviae miltiorrhizae and ligustrazine hydrochloride injection, danshensu, ligustrazine
hydrochloride.
Abstract:
Aims: This is a pharmacokinetic study of Salviae miltiorrhizae and ligustrazine hydrochloride injection.
The study aimed to evaluate the mechanism of action, safety and rational clinical use of Salviae miltiorrhizae and
ligustrazine hydrochloride injection.
Background: Salviae miltiorrhizae and ligustrazine hydrochloride injection is a compound preparation consisted of
Salvia miltiorrhiza extract and ligustrazine hydrochloride for the treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular
diseases in China.
Objective: The study aimed to develop a rapid and sensitive high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array
detector-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-DAD-MS/MS) method for simultaneous determination of six major
active ingredients of Salviae miltiorrhizae and ligustrazine hydrochloride injection, namely danshensu, protocatechuic
aldehyde, rosmarinic acid, lithospermic acid, salvianolic acid A, and ligustrazine hydrochloride, in rat plasma.
Methods: Plasma samples were precipitated with methanol, which was spiked with ascorbic acid and the supernatant
was separated on a Waters Cortecs C18 column, by using a gradient mobile phase system of acetonitrile-water containing
0.05% formic acid (v/v). For internal standards, puerarin was selected for the five salvianolic acids, while
isofraxidin was used for ligustrazine hydrochloride. Besides, electrospray ionization in negative mode and multiplereaction
monitoring were used to identify and quantify the five salvianolic acids, whereas ligustrazine hydrochloride
was quantified at 310 nm using the diode array detector.
Results: Noticeably, all calibration curves showed good linearity (R2>0.99) over the concentration range, with a
lower limit of quantification between 0.00411 and 0.0369 μg/mL for salvianolic acids, and 1.74 μg/mL for ligustrazine
hydrochloride. Next, the precision of the developed method was evaluated by intra- and inter-day assays, and
the percentage of relative standard deviation was within 10%. Although the extraction efficiency of some salvianolic
acids was not very satisfactory, the sensitivity of the analytical method met the analysis requirements of rat plasma
samples. Moreover, the validated method was successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study of Salviae miltiorrhizae
and ligustrazine hydrochloride injection in the rat model.
Conclusion: Linear pharmacokinetic characteristics were observed for the six active ingredients after intravenous
infusion administration in rats within the dose range examined here. In summary, our study proposed a HPLC-DADMS/
MS method with the simultaneous determination of multiple ingredients, and demonstrated its applicability in
pharmacokinetic studies.