Development of an ultra-fast liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry method for simultaneous determination of seven flavonoids in rat plasma: Application to a comparative pharmacokinetic investigation of Ginkgo biloba extract and single pure ginkgo flavonoids after oral administration

For deeper pharmacokinetic investigation and further curative application of ginkgo flavonoids, a delicate, efficient and precise UFLC–MS/MS technique for synchronous quantitation of seven flavonoids, apigenin, luteolin, naringenin, quercetin, diosmetin, kaempferol and isorhamnetin in rat plasma has been established. After mixing with the internal standard (IS) linarin, bio-samples were pretreated via ethyl acetate for liquid–liquid extraction, then isolated at 0.2 ml/min flow rate on a Venusil MP C18 chromatographic column (100 mm × 2.1 mm, 3 μm) by means of gradient elution. 0.1% formic acid–water and methanol system was used as the mobile phase. Mass spectrometric inspection was conducted on a 4000Q UFLC–MS/MS system with turbo ion spray source in patterns of negative ion and multiple reaction-monitoring (MRM). All calibration curves proved favorable linearity (R2 ≥ 0.9918) in linear ranges. Intra-day and inter-day precisions didn’t exceed 14.0% for all the analytes, and the accuracy was within 6.9%. Extraction recoveries of analytes and IS were less than ±15.0% of nominal concentrations. This method has been under thorough and firm verification for a comparative pharmacokinetic research after gavage between Ginkgo biloba extract and single pure ginkgo flavonoids. The results demonstrated that there’re evident pharmacokinetic discrepancies, and possible structural influences were innovatively proposed. Generally, substitution with 3-hydroxylation, a double bond in ring C, ring B methoxylation often confer longer onset period. The existence of ring B catechol group gives rise to faster clearance.