Determination of paeonol in rat plasma by high-performance liquid chromatography and its application to pharmacokinetic studies following oral administration of Moutan cortex decoction.

Quantification of paeonol, the principal bioactive component of Moutan cortex, in rat plasma following oral administration of Moutan cortex decoction was achieved by using a simple and sensitive high-performance liquid chromatographic method. The calibration curves for paeonol were linear in both the low (25-200 ng/mL) and the high concentration range (200-4000 ng/mL) with r(2) values of 0.9928 and 0.9993, respectively. The coefficients of variation of intra- and inter-day assays were 14.36, 6.52, 1.76, 1.25, 5.36, 3.30 and 1.42% and 12.70, 1.19, 2.98, 1.91, 1.75, 1.78 and 0.96% at concentrations of 25, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000 and 2000 ng/mL, respectively. The recoveries of paeonol from rat plasma were found to be 101.9, 104.5, 105.4 and 101.2% for concentrations of 50, 500, 1000 and 2000 ng/mL, respectively. The paeonol plasma concentrations were fitted to two-compartment model with fi rst order absorption. The mean terminal half-lives (t(1/2)) of paeonol was 80.9 min. Copyright 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.