title: Development of gas chromatography/mass spectrometry following headspace solid-phase microextraction for fast determination of asarones in plasma.
abstract: Asarones (alpha-asarone and beta-asarone) are the active components in the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) of Acorus tatarinowii Schott, which has been used to treat epilepsy for several thousand years. To perform the pharmacokinetics (PK) study of alpha- and beta-asarone from the TCM essential oil, a simple, rapid and sensitive method was developed for the determination of asarones from the TCM in rabbit plasma, based on headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) followed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) with electron ionization (EI). The extraction parameters of headspace volume, fiber coating, sample temperature, extraction time, stirring rate and ion strength were systemically optimized. Furthermore, the method linearity, detection limit and precision were also investigated. It was shown that the proposed method provided a good linearity (0.02-20 microg/mL, R(2) > 0.99), low detection limit (<2.0 ng/mL) and good precision (RSD < 7.0%). Finally, HS-SPME followed by GC/MS was applied to fast determination of alpha- and beta-asarone in rabbit plasma at different time points after oral adminstration of the essential oil from A. tatarinowii. The experimental results suggest that the proposed method provides an alternative approach to the PK studies of volatile compounds in TCMs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China. chdeng@fudan.edu.cn
authors.forename: Chunhui
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.forename: Shuang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Taoming
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Gengli
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.forename: Xiangmin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D029023:Acorus / Q000737:chemistry*; D000284:Administration, Oral; D000081248:Allylbenzene Derivatives; D000818:Animals; D000840:Anisoles / Q000097:blood / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D000927:Anticonvulsants / Q000097:blood / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000032:analysis / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*; D009822:Oils, Volatile; D011817:Rabbits; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D052617:Solid Phase Microextraction / Q000379:methods*; D021241:Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D000081248:Allylbenzene Derivatives; D000840:Anisoles; D000927:Anticonvulsants; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; D009822:Oils, Volatile; C012195:asarone