Study of the determination and pharmacokinetics of Compound Danshen Dripping Pills in human serum by column switching liquid chromatography electrospray ion trap mass spectrometry.

Compound Danshen Dripping Pill (CDDP) is an important drug widely used for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. An active component Danshensu (DS) of CDDP was separated by reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography using column-switching system and analyzed by electrospray mass spectrometry. With this validated assay the pharmacokinetics of CDDP was studied in 10 healthy volunteers after a single oral administration of 250 mg. After trichloroacetic acid precipitation of serum proteins, the analytes were preconcentrated and black-flushed on a reversed-phase column for separation using a switching valve. The analytes were ionized using negative electrospray ionization (ESI) mode. The precursor ion of m/z 196.6 was used to quantify DS in serum. The linear calibration curve ranged from 1.25 to 175 microg/mL. The limit of quantification (LOQ) for DS was 0.15 microg/mL. The intra-day and inter-day precision (R.S.D.) was less than 7.4 and 7.9%, respectively. Copyright 2004 Elsevier B.V.