title: HPLC determination of strychnine and brucine in rat tissues and the distribution study of processed semen strychni.
abstract: A simple and low-cost HPLC method with UV absorbance detection was developed and validated to simultaneously determine strychnine and brucine, the most abundant alkaloids in the processed Semen Strychni, in rat tissues (kidney, liver, spleen, lung, heart, stomach, small intestine, brain and plasma). The tissue samples were treated with a simple liquid-liquid extraction prior to HPLC. The LOQs were in the range of 0.039-0.050 µg/ml for different tissue or plasma samples. The extraction recoveries varied from 71.63 to 98.79%. The linear range was 0.05-2 µg/ml with correlation coefficient of over 0.991. The intra- and inter-day precision was less than 15%. Then the method was used to measure the tissue distribution of strychnine and brucine after intravenous administration of 1 mg/kg crude alkaloids fraction (CAF) extracted from the processed Semen Strychni. The results revealed that strychnine and brucine possessed similar tissue distribution characterization. The highest level was observed in kidney, while the lowest level was found in brain. It was indicated that kidney might be the primary excretion organ of prototype strychnine and brucine. It was also deduced that strychnine and brucine had difficulty in crossing the blood-brain barrier. Furthermore, no long-term accumulation of strychnine and brucine was found in rat tissues.
authors.affiliation: College of Pharmacy, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Ting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.forename: Zhi-peng
authors.initials: ZP
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Xiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.forename: Tu-lin
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Guo-jun
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Bao-chang
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Cai
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D007668:Kidney / Q000378:metabolism; D008099:Liver / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D010946:Plants, Medicinal; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013331:Strychnine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000032:analysis*; D014018:Tissue Distribution
chemical_list: C083806:brucine; D013331:Strychnine