An UPLC-MS/MS method for determination of solasonine in rat plasma and its application of a pharmacokinetic and bioavailability study

• Solasonine was a potential anti-cancer agent.
• A sensitive and rapid method for analysis of solasonine in rat plasma is firstly proposed.
• It is the first pharmacokinetic and bioavailability study of solasonine in rats.
• A simple protein precipitation was used for pretreatment and the LOD was 0.1 ng/mL.

Solasonine, a known glycoalkaloid, is a potential anti-cancer agent. In this work, a simple, sensitive and fast ultra performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method was developed and validated for the quantitative determination of solasonine in rat plasma. Plasma samples were processed with a protein precipitation. The separation was achieved by an ACQUITY HSS T3 (100 × 2.1 mm, 1.8 μm) column with a gradient mobile phase consisting of 0.1% formic acid and acetonitrile. Detection was carried out using positive-ion electrospray tandem mass spectrometry via multiple reaction monitoring (MRM). The validated method had an excellent linearity in the range of 0.1–500 ng/mL (R2 > 0.994) with a low limit of detection (0.1 ng/mL) and lower limit of quantification (0.5 ng/mL). The extraction recovery was in the range of 92.4–94.9% for solasonine and 91.9% for dendrobine (internal standard, IS). The intra- and inter-day precision was below 9.8% and accuracy was from 86.0% to 94.3%. No notable matrix effect and astaticism was observed for solasonine. The method has been successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic and bioavailability study of solasonine in rats for the first time, which provides the basis for the further development and application of solasonine.