Identification and determination of absorbed components of Danggui-Shaoyao-San in rat plasma

Aim: To investigate the absorbed components of Danggui-Shaoyao-San (DSS) in rat plasma and their pharmacokinetics. Methods: Serum samples from rats with DSS extract administrated orally were analyzed by HPLC-DAD-MSⁿ and an HPLC-DAD method was established for the determination. Results: Seven prototypes and one metabolite were identified in rat serum, and albiflorin, paeoniflorin, ferulic acid and ligustilide in rat plasma were determined for pharmacokinetic study. The proposed method was validated with a linear range of 0.025-5.60 μg·mL^-1 and limit of quantitation (LOQ) at 0.022-0.180 μg·mL^-1, respectively. The RSD of intra- and inter-day precision variations were less than 10.1% and the accuracies ranged from 92.5%-111.5%. The overall recovery was over 80%. Conclusion: Paeoniflorin sulfonate, albiflorin, paeoniflorin, ferulic acid, senkyunolide I, ligustilide and butylidenephthalide were found to be the potentially effective constituents in DSS. The method for determination is simple and sensitive, which is proved to be suitable for pharmacokinetic study of albiflorin, paeoniflorin, ferulic acid and ligustilide in DSS.