Pharmacokinetic properties of albiflorin and paeoniflorin after oral administration of pure compound, Radix Paeoniae alba extract and Danggui-Shaoyao-San extract to rats

Abstract

This study compared the pharmacokinetics of albiflorin (ALB) and paeoniflorin (PAE), respectively, after oral administration of ALB, PAE, Radix Paeoniae alba (RPA) extract, and Danggui-Shaoyao-San (DSS) extract to rats on separate occasions. Analytes were detected simultaneously with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Noncompartmental pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated. After oral administration of RPA and DSS extract to rats, ALB reached maximum concentrations of 4637 ± 2774 ng/ml (0.40 ± 0.14 h) and 226 ± 122 ng/ml (0.35 ± 0.14 h) and PAE reached maximum concentrations of 2132 ± 560 ng/ml (0.40 ± 0.14 h) and 143 ± 65 ng/ml (0.45 ± 0.11 h), respectively. Compared to the AUC_0 − t value (1122 ± 351 and 722 ± 158 ng h/ml for ALB and PAE, respectively) after administration of monomers, larger AUC_0 − t value of ALB (4755 ± 2560 ng h/ml) and PAE (2259 ± 910 ng h/ml) after administration of RPA extract and smaller AUC_0 − t value of ALB (411 ± 118 ng h/ml) and PAE (242 ± 126 ng h/ml) after administration of DSS extract were obtained. The C _max, AUC, and K _el of ALB and PAE were remarkably increased (P < 0.05, 0.01 or 0.005) during oral administration of RPA extract in comparison to that of DSS extract.

Keywords:

• albiflorin
• paeoniflorin
• pharmacokinetics
• Radix Paeoniae alba
• Danggui-Shaoyao-San

Acknowledgements

We thank the financial support of the National Key Technologies R&D Program for New Drugs (Nos 2009ZX09301-002 and 2009ZX090304-004) for this work.