High-performance liquid chromatography determination and pharmacokinetics of coumarin compounds after oral administration of Samul-Tang to rats.
BACKGROUND
Samul-tang has been traditionally used for the treatment of cardiovascular, gynecologic, cutaneous, and chronic inflammation disorders. Although coumarin compounds do have various pharmacological activities and the same may be present in Samul-tang, however there is little information about it.


OBJECTIVE
A simple and sensitive high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method has been developed for the determination of nodakenin, nodakenetin, decursin, decursinol, and decursinol angelate in rat plasma. To obtain a better understanding for pharmacological properties of Samul-tang, pharmacokinetic study of coumarin compounds was performed after oral administration of Samul-tang in rats.


METHODS
Chromatographic separation of the analytes was successfully achieved on a Phenomenex Luna C18 column (4.6 mm×250 mm, 5 μm) using a mobile phase composed of acetonitrile water with a gradient elution at a flow rate of 1 mL/min. Noncompartmental analysis was performed.


RESULTS
Calibration curves for all analytes had good linearity (r(2) <0.999) in a wide linear range. The lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) ranged from 0.05 to 0.1 μg/mL. The variation of intra- and interday assay was less than 15%. Nodakenin, nodakenetin, and decursinol were determined in rat plasma after oral administration of Samul-tang.


CONCLUSIONS
This developed and validated HPLC method was successfully applied to the pharmacokinetic study of three coumarin compounds in rats, given as a single oral administration of Samul-tang. These pharmacokinetic data of the nodakenin, nodakenetin, and decursinol could offer a new point of view to evaluate the pharmacological effects of Samul-tang.
Korean Medicine-Based Herbal Drug Development Group, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, South Korea.
Youn-Hwan
YH
Hwang
Korean Medicine-Based Herbal Drug Development Group, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, South Korea.
Won-Kyung
WK
Cho
Korean Medicine-Based Herbal Drug Development Group, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, South Korea.
Doorye
D
Jang
Korean Medicine-Based Herbal Drug Development Group, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, South Korea.
Jeong-Ho
JH
Ha
Korean Medicine-Based Herbal Drug Development Group, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, South Korea.
Jin Yeul
JY
Ma
Decursinol; nodakenetin; nodakenin; pharmacokinetics; rat