Simultaneous determination of multiple active components in rat plasma using ultra-fast liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry and application to a comparative pharmacokinetic study after oral administration of Suan-Zao-Ren decoction and Suan-Zao-Ren granule.

Suan-Zao-Ren decoction has been used to treat insomnia for many years. In this work, a rapid and sensitive ultra-fast liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry method was first developed and fully validated for the simultaneous quantification of seven main active components, spinosin, mangiferin, neomangiferin, ferulic acid, liquiritin, isoliquiritin, and liquiritin apioside in rat plasma. The method was also successfully applied to compare the pharmacokinetics of these active ingredients after oral administration of Suan-Zao-Ren decoction and Suan-Zao-Ren granule. The separation was achieved on a Venusil MP C18 column and the detection was conducted by the multiple reaction monitoring mode using negative ion mode. Each calibration curve had good linearity over a wide concentration range. The precision of intra- and interday were all within 15%, and the extraction recoveries at different analyte concentrations were all above 82.0%. The established method was successfully applied to compare the pharmacokinetic profiles of the analytes between Suan-Zao-Ren decoction and Suan-Zao-Ren granule groups. The results indicated that all the analytes had similar mean concentration-time curves trend between two groups. No significant differences were observed in pharmacokinetic parameters of mangiferin, while the others had significant differences.