High-performance liquid chromatographic determination and pharmacokinetic study of vitexin-2″-O-rhamnoside in rat plasma after intravenous administration

A simple and specific high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method was developed for the pharmacokinetic study of vitexin-2″-O-rhamnoside (VOR) in rat after intravenous administration. The plasma samples were deproteinized with methanol after addition of internal standard (i.s.) hesperidin. HPLC analysis was performed on a Diamonsil ODS C18 analytical column, using acetonitrile-0.3% formic acid (20:80, v/v) as the mobile phase with UV detection at 270 nm. The standard curve was linear over the range of 0.1070–21.41 μg/mL in rat plasma. The average extraction recovery of VOR was 97.9 ± 3.1%, and the relative standard deviations (R.S.D.s) of the intra- and inter-day precisions were no more than 7.4 and 8.5%, respectively. The lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) was 0.1070 μg/mL. The AUC of VOR was proportional to the dose after intravenous administration of 15, 30, 60 and 120 mg/kg body weight, and the elimination half-life (t1/2β), systemic clearance (Cl) and apparent volume of distribution (Vc) were not significantly different among the four doses, and all the results indicated that the pharmacokinetics of VOR in rat obeyed first-order kinetics.