Simultaneous and sensitive quantification of seven active compounds in Huan-Nao-Yi-Cong-Fang and rat serum by UFLC-ESI/MS

Abstract

Huan-Nao-Yi-Cong-Fang is a potential specific traditional Chinese patent medicine for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. It is composed of five herbal medicines: Radix Polygoni Multiflori Prepamousea, Panax ginseng, Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort, Coptis chinensis Franch and Acorus gramineus. A sensitive and effective UFLC-ESI/MS method has been developed for the simultaneous quantification of seven active compounds including ferulic acid, 2,3,5,4′-tetrahydroxystilbene-2-O-β-D-glucoside, berberine hydrochloride, ginsenoside Rg1, ginsenoside Re, ginsenoside Rb1, and emodin in Huan-Nao-Yi-Cong-Fang and rat serum. Samples were separated on a Shim-pack XR-ODS column (100 × 2.0 mm I.D., 5 μm) using acetonitrile–water containing 0.1% formic acid as the mobile phase and then ionized and detected by ESI/MS with selected ion monitoring in either positive or negative mode. All the calibration curves have good linear relationships with ng mL⁻¹ levels of limits of quantification. The mean recoveries ranged from 87.06% to 106.79% with a relative standard deviation of <9.89%. The proposed method was further applied to the analysis of rat serum samples after oral administration of Huan-Nao-Yi-Cong-Fang. The results show that the established UFLC-ESI/MS method is a very useful tool for the quality control of Huan-Nao-Yi-Cong-Fang and pharmacokinetic research.