Analysis of bioactive components and pharmacokinetics of Caulophyllum robustum in rat plasma after oral administration by UPLC–ESI–MS/MS

Abstract

A UPLC–MS/MS method was developed and validated the determination and pharmacokinetic study of magnoflorine, cauloside C, hederagenin, and oleanolic acid from Caulophyllum robustum. Digoxin was used as the internal standard. The pretreated plasma samples were carried out on a Waters ACQUITYUPLC HSS T3 column at 35 °C with a mobile phase of acetonitrile–water (90:10, v/v) at a flow rate of 0.2 mL/min. This article describes the most simple, sensitive, and validated UPLC–MS/MS method to date for the simultaneous successful determination of four compounds in rat plasma after oral administration of the extract of C. robustum and their pharmacokinetic studies.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Caulophyllum robustum
• UPLC–MS/MS
• pharmacokinetic study

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research received a specific grant from the National Major Scientific and Technological Special Project for “Significant New Drug Development” during the Twelfth Five-year Plan Period (No. 2013ZX09102019), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81373929), the Heilongjiang Province Natural Science Foundation (H201204), and Science-Technology research project of Heilongjiang Provincial Administration of TCM in Chinese medicine for Middle-aged and Young Scientists (ZQG-48).