Development and Validation of a HPLC Method for Determination of Isochlorogenic Acid A in Rat Plasma and Application to Pharmacokinetic Study

A simple, optimized and sensitive high-performance liquid chromatograph method with ultraviolet (UV) detection (HPLC/UV) was developed and validated for determination of isochlorogenic acid A in rat plasma. The analytes were successfully separated on a Shodex C18 column (5 μm particle size, 250 mm × 4.6 mm, i.d.), the mobile phase contained 0.1% phosphoric acid aqueous solution (solvent A) and methanol (solvent B) (50:50, v/v) at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. The wavelength for UV detection was set at 300 nm and the column temperature was maintained in 30°C. Calibration curve for isochlorogenic acid A was found to be good linear over the range of 0.04-40 μg/mL (r = 0.9998). The intra- and inter-day precisions (relative standard deviation) were within 7.63% and the assay accuracy (RE) ranged from -1.41 to 3.25%. The limit of detection and the lower limit of quantification were 0.012 and 0.04 μg/mL, respectively. The validated method was successfully applied to pharmacokinetic study of isochlorogenic acid A in rats for the first time. The pharmacokinetic parameters were evaluated after the rats were administered intravenously and intragastrically isochlorogenic acid A at the single dose of 18 mg/kg, respectively. The absolute bioavailability was calculated to be 22.6%.