Development and validation of a gas chromatography–mass spectrometry method for the determination of isoimperatorin in rat plasma and tissue: Application to the pharmacokinetic and tissue distribution study

Isoimperatorin is one of the major furanocoumarins isolated from the dried root of Angelica dahuricae Benth.et Hook. The aim of the present study is to develop a procedure based on gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) to describe the analysis of isoimperatorin in rat plasma and tissue. The method was set up and adapted for the analysis of small biological samples taken from rats. Biological samples were extracted by liquid–liquid extraction. Extracted compounds were acetic ether/light petroleum (1:2). They were separated by GC on a DB-5MS analytical column and determined by a quadrupole mass spectrometer detector operated under selected ion monitoring mode. Excellent linearity was found between 0.027–5.32 μg/mL (r > 0.99) for plasma samples and 0.108–21.28 μg/g (r > 0.99) for the tissue samples. The limit of detection (LOD) was 1.0 ng/mL or 1.0 ng/g (three times signal/noise ratio). Within- and between-day precisions expressed as the relative standard deviation (RSD) for the method were 2.81–5.22% and 4.72–6.52%, respectively. The method recoveries for all samples were >80%. The main pharmacokinetic parameters obtained were Tmax = (1.06 ± 0.12) h, Cmax = (0.72 ± 0.14) μg/mL, AUC = (2.11 ± 0.29) h μg/mL and Ka = (1.76 ± 0.13)/h. The concentrations of isoimperatorin in rat liver, heart, cerebellum and cerebrum were higher than those in other organs. The results presented here clearly indicate that this proposed method could be applicable to investigate the pharmacokinetic and tissue distribution of isoimperatorin in rats after administration.