A rapid and sensitive LC-MS/MS method for quantification of quercetin-3-O-β-d-glucopyranosyl-7-O-β-d-gentiobioside in plasma and its application to a pharmacokinetic study.

A rapid and sensitive LC-MS/MS method with good accuracy and precision was developed and validated for the pharmacokinetic study of quercetin-3-O--d-glucopyranosyl-7-O--d-gentiobioside (QGG) in Sprague-Dawley rats. Plasma samples were simply precipitated by methanol and then analyzed by LC-MS/MS. A Venusil (R) ASB C-18 column (2.1x50mm, i.d. 5m) was used for separation, with methanol-water (50:50, v/v) as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 300L/min. The optimized mass transition ion-pairs (m/z) for quantitation were 787.3/301.3 for QGG, and 725.3/293.3 for internal standard. The linear range was 7.32-1830ng/mL with an average correlation coefficient of 0.9992, and the limit of quantification was 7.32ng/mL. The intra- and inter-day precision and accuracy were less than +/- 15%. At low, medium and high quality control concentrations, the recovery and matrix effect of the analyte and IS were in the range of 89.06-92.43 and 88.58-97.62%, respectively. The method was applied for the pharmacokinetic study of QGG in Sprague-Dawley rats. Copyright (c) 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.