Pharmacokinetic Study of Detecting Medicinal Ingredients of Traditional Chinese Medicines in Different Extract Base

Variations of medicinal ingredients were qualitatively analyzed in beagle dog plasma after oral administration of the water and ethanol extracts of the decoction, respectively, a compound traditional Chinese herbal medicine for the irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). HPLC analysis was performed using a Waters 996 series HPLC system. The mobile phase was a water/methanol solvent or a water/acetonitrile one. Both retention times of HPLC and data of UV spectrum were used to determine the ingredients in plasma samples. It was found that no desired ingredient was detected in the plasma samples administered with the water extract of the IBS formula at different dosages. However, at least 20 compounds were able to be detected in those treated with the ethanol extract when the detection dosage was 27 times lower than in the water one. Compositions of medicinal ingredients in dog plasma significantly varied upon different solvent extracts of the formula. This presented difficulties or clues in demonstrating the effectiveness of traditional Chinese medicines.