Identification and quantification of baicalein, wogonin, oroxylin A and their major glucuronide conjugated metabolites in rat plasma after oral administration of Radix scutellariae product

The current study aims to identify and quantify three flavones (baicalein, wogonin and oroxylin A) and their major metabolites (baicalin, wogonoside and oroxylin A-7-O-glucuronide) in rat plasma after oral administration of Radix scutellariae product. A simple HPLC/UV method has been developed to simultaneously determine the three flavones and their major metabolites in rat plasma. The chromatographic separation of the six analytes was achieved by a Thermo C18 column with linear gradient elution of a mobile phase containing acetonitrile and 20 mM sodium dihydrogen phosphate buffer (pH 4.6). All the tested analytes were detected by PDA detector at a wavelength of 320 nm. The intra-day and inter-day precision for the current assay of the six analytes was within the range of −2.23% to 15.13% and −10.83% to 6.42%, respectively. All the studied analytes could be efficiently extracted from the rat plasma using HLB cartridge with extraction recoveries above 70% and were stable under different storage conditions. The developed assay method was successfully applied to the pharmacokinetic study of baicalin, wogonoside after oral administration of a commercially available Radix scutellariae containing capsule at a dose of 3.2 g/kg to Sprague-Dawley rats. In addition to wogonoside, a new metabolite of wogonin has been identified using LC/MS/MS for the first time.