Simultaneous determination of abrine, hypaphorine, schaftoside and soyasaponin Bb in rat plasma by UPLC–MS/MS and its application to a pharmacokinetic study after oral administration of Abrus cantoniensis Hance extract

A simple and sensitive liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method was established and validated for the quantitative determination of abrine, hypaphorine, schaftoside and soyasaponin Bb in rat plasma. After preparation by protein precipitation with acetonitrile, the analytes and internal standard were separated on a Waters CORTECS T3 column using acetonitrile containing 0.1% formic acid and 0.1% formic acid in water as mobile phase by gradient elution in 2 min. The method showed excellent linearity over the range of 5-500 ng/ml with acceptable intra- and inter-day precision, accuracy, matrix effect and recovery. The stability assay indicated that the four analytes were stable during the analysis process. The method was applied to a pharmacokinetic study of Abrus cantoniensis Hance in rats. The result suggested that after oral administration, the four analytes were quickly absorbed into the plasma. The dose-normalized exposure of hypaphorine was the highest with a long elimination half-life (t1/2 9.83 h), followed by abrine and schaftoside with t1/2 values of 1.07 and 1.15 h. The dose normalized exposure of soyasaponin Bb was the lowest, which is possibily due to the high polarity and poor permeability. This study provides a basis for elucidating the material foundation of A. cantoniensis Hance.