Quantitative determination of buagafuran in human plasma by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

A sensitive and selective high performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC–MS/MS) method was developed for the determination of buagafuran in human plasma. The analyte was extracted from plasma samples with hexane after addition of isotopic internal standard and chromatographed on a RP-C8 column. The mobile phase consisted of methanol–water (90:10, v/v) and the flow rate was 0.2 mL/min. The detection was performed on a triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer in multiple reactions monitoring (MRM) mode using positive electrospray ionization (ESI). The method was validated over the concentration range of 0.5–200 ng/mL. Inter- and intra-day precision (RSD%) were all within 15% and the accuracy (RE%) was equal or lower than 9.5%. The lower limit of quantitation (LLOQ) was 0.5 ng/mL. The extraction recovery was on average 38.1% and the detection was not affected by the matrix. The method was successfully applied to the pharmacokinetic study of buagafuran in healthy Chinese volunteers.