Simultaneous determination of triterpenoid saponins in dog plasma by a validated UPLC–MS/MS and its application to a pharmacokinetic study after administration of total saponin of licorice

A rapid and sensitive ultra performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry method was developed for simultaneous determination of eight constituents, uralsaponin C, uralsaponin F, 22β-acetoxyl-glycyrrhizin, 24-hydroxy-licorice-saponin E2, licorice-saponin G2, licorice-saponin E2, glycyrrhizin, and licorice-saponin J2, from total saponin of licorice (TSL) in dog plasma. Ardisiacrispin A was used as the internal standard (IS). The separation was performed on Thermo Syncronic C18 column (100 mm × 2.1 mm, 1.7 μm) at a flow rate of 0.4 mL min−1, and acetonitrile/methanol (3:1, v/v)–0.1% formic acid was used as mobile phase. The detection was performed on a triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer by multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) via electrospray ionization (ESI) source with negative ionization mode. All calibration curves had good linearity (r > 0.991) over the concentration range from 2.03–405 ng mL−1 to 2.63–2625 ng mL−1 for all components. The intra- and inter-day precision was within 15% and the accuracy ranged from −14.08% to 13.8%. The method was successfully applied to pharmacokinetic study of eight triterpenoid saponins in dog plasma after oral administration of TSL.

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► A rapid and reliable UPLC–MS/MS method was developed for simultaneous analysis of licorice saponins in dog plasma.
► The method has been successfully applied to the pharmacokinetic study of eight bioactive saponins in dogs.
► Sample preparation was carried out by one step protein precipitation and the data acquisition of each sample was 4.0 min.