Determination and pharmacokinetics of seven phenolic figureprint constituents isolated from Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge in rats by LC–MS/MS

Aim This study is to determine seven phenolic constituents (salvianolic acid A, salvianolic acid B, rosmarinic acid, caffeic acid, protocatechuic aldehyde, protocatechuic acid, danshensu) of isolated from Radix Salvia miltiorrhizae in rat plasma and to study the pharmacokinetics of the seven phenolic constituents. Methods A rapid and sensitive method for the determination of seven phenolic constituents in rat plasma was developed and validated by LC–MS/MS. The analytes and internal standard chloramphenicol were separated on a Symmetry C18 analytical column with methanol–acetonitrile–0.5% formic acid (55:5:40, v/v/v) as mobile phase. Detection was performed on a triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer equipped with electrospray ionization source operated under selected reaction monitoring (SRM) mode. Ressults The method has a lower limit of quantification of 6.0 ng·mL of seven phenolic constituents. The linear calibration curves were obtained in the concentration range of 6–4000 ng·mL for seven analytes. The intraand inter-day precisions (RSD%) were lower than 11.2%. Deviation of the assay accuracies were within ±9.00% (RE%) for seven analytes. Conclusion The method was successfully applied to the pharmacokinetic study after an oral administration of 500 mg·kg Radix Salvia miltiorrhizae