Development and validation a liquid chromatography mass spectrometry for determination of solasodine in rat plasma and its application to a pharmacokinetic study

•First report of development an LC–MS method for the determination of solasodine in rat plasma.•First report of pharmacokinetic study of solasodine after oral administration.•A simple one-step liquid–liquid extraction by ethyl acetate was used for sample treatment.

Solasodine is a poisonous alkaloid chemical compound that occurs in plants of the Solanaceae family. A simple and selective liquid chromatography mass spectrometry method for determination of solasodine in rat plasma was developed and validated over the range of 3–1000 ng/mL. Chromatographic separation was achieved on a C18 (2.1 mm × 50 mm, 3.5 μm) column with acetonitrile–0.1% formic acid in water as mobile phase with gradient elution. The flow rate was set at 0.4 mL/min. After addition of midazolam as internal standard (IS), liquid–liquid extraction by ethyl acetate was used as sample preparation. An electrospray ionization source was applied and operated in positive ion mode; selective ion monitoring mode was used for quantification with target ions m/z 414 for solasodine and m/z 326 for IS. Mean recoveries of solasodine in rat plasma were in the range of 87.6–94.1%. Matrix effects for solasodine were between 94.9% and 102.3%. Coefficient of variation of intra-day and inter-day precision were both <13%. The accuracy of the method ranged from 94.4% to 105.3%. The method was successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study of solasodine after oral administration of 20 mg/kg in rats.