Vortex-assisted liquid–liquid microextraction based on hydrophobic deep eutectic solvent for the urinary excretion study of Taraxacum mongolicum extract in rats

Abstract

A novel green vortex-assisted liquid–liquid microextraction based on hydrophobic deep eutectic solvents (VALLME-HDES) technique was developed and applied to the urinary excretion study of Taraxacum mongolicum (TM) extract in rats. Deep eutectic solvent (DES), a less toxic extraction phase, was formed by camphor and 1-hexanol at a molar ratio of 1:2. The key factors affecting the extraction efficiency of the VALLME-HDES method, such as DES volume, vortex time, molar rations of camphor and 1-hexanol, and amount of salts, were systematically examined through one-factor-at-a-time strategy. Under optimum conditions, the developed method exhibited a good linearity (r ≥ 0.9994). The acceptable precision and repeatability were less than 1.10 % and 4.78 %, respectively. Recoveries from urine samples spiked at different concentration levels were 80.0–89.5 % (RSD ≤ 4.78 %). To further investigate the applicability and effectiveness of hydrophobic DES, the validated method was applied to the urinary excretion study of two flavone aglycones in rats after oral administration of the TM extract. The average 48 h cumulative urinary excretion of luteolin and diosmetin accounted for 0.12 % and 1.71 % of the respective administered dose. In addition, the greenness of the proposed method was assessed using the Analytical GREEnness (AGREE) tool. All these results indicated that the proposed method was feasible and efficient, which had great development potential for pharmacokinetic studies and clinical sample analysis.