Pharmacokinetic comparisons of six steroid saponins in rat plasma following oral administration of crude and stir-fried Fructus Tribuli extracts by UHPLC-MS/MS.

Abstract

Modern pharmacological studies have shown that Fructus Tribuli can improve sexual function and treat cardiovascular diseases. In this study, we focused on comparing the pharmacokinetics of crude Fructus Tribuli (CFT) and stir-fried Fructus Tribuli (SFT) to further clarify the changes in chemical composition in vivo. The quantitation of six analytes was performed in a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer using the multiple reaction monitoring mode. Separation was performed on a Halo® C18 column using 0.05% formic acid and 5 μmol/L sodium formate in water, and 0.05% formic acid and 5 μmol/L sodium formate in acetonitrile as the mobile phase. The selectivity, precision, accuracy, extraction recovery, matrix effect and stability of the method were fully validated. Compared with the crude group, the parameters Cmax and AUC0-t of terrestroside B and terrestrosin K increased significantly (P < 0.05), but the Cmax and AUC0-t of polianthoside D, terrestrinin D, tribuluside A and terrestrosin D were decreased, terrestrosin D being especially decreased (P < 0.05), after oral administration of SFT extract. These results showed that the developed method was suitable for pharmacokinetic analysis of the six steroid saponins of CFT and SFT in rat plasma, and can be used to facilitate future clinical studies.