Simultaneous determination of tectorigenin, irigenin and irisflorentin in rat plasma and urine by UHPLC–MS/MS: Application to pharmacokinetics

A sensitive and reliable ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization–tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC–ESI–MS/MS) has been developed and validated for the simultaneous determination of three active components, i.e., tectorigenin, irigenin and irisflorentin, in rat plasma and urine after oral administration of Rhizoma Belamcandae extract. Chromatographic separation was achieved on a Zorbax SB-C18 column (50 mm × 2.1 mm, 1.8 μm; Agilent, USA) with gradient elution using a mobile phase that consisted of acetonitrile – 0.1% formic acid in water at a flow rate of 0.4 mL/min. Detection was performed by a triple-quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode via polarity switching between the negative (for tectorigenin and irigenin) and positive (for irisflorentin) ionization modes. The calibration curve was linear over a range of 50–50,000 ng/mL for tectorigenin, 10–5000 ng/mL for irigenin and 0.1–200 ng/mL for irisflorentin, respectively. The intra- and inter-day precisions (RSD %) were within 11.3% for all analytes, whereas the deviation of assay accuracies ranged from −8.7 to +11.1%. All analytes were proven to be stable during all sample storage and analysis procedures. This method was successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study of the three isoflavones after oral administration of Rhizoma Belamcandae extract to rats.