title: Determination of liquiritigenin by ultra high performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple quadrupole mass spectrometry: Application to a linear pharmacokinetic study of liquiritigenin in rat plasma.
abstract: A simple, sensitive and rapid ultra high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) method has been developed and validated for the quantification of liquiritigenin, a promising anti-tumor agent. Liquiritigenin and the internal standard were separated on an Agilent Extend C18column and eluted with a gradient mobile phase system of acetonitrile and water. The analysis was performed on a negative ionization electrospray mass spectrometer via multiple reaction monitoring (MRM). Transitions of m/z 255.0→119.0 for liquiritigenin and m/z 269.0→117.0 for the IS were monitored. One-step protein precipitation with acetonitrile was used to remove impurities and extract the analytes from plasma. The method had a chromatographic run time of 4.5min and a good linearity in the range of 1-1000ng/mL. The precision (R.S.D.) of intra-day and inter-day ranged from 4.54 to 10.65% and 5.94 to 13.81%, respectively; while the accuracy of intra-day and inter-day ranged from 104.06 to 109.28% and 94.98 to 112.05%. The recovery and stability were also within the acceptable limits. The validated method was applied to a linear pharmacokinetic study of liquiritigenin in rat plasma for the first time.
authors.affiliation: Pharmacy College of Nanjing University of TCM, Nanjing 210023, China; Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine Processing, Engineering Center of State Ministry of Education for Standardization of Chinese Medicine Processing, Nanjing 210023, China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.affiliation: Pharmacy College of Nanjing University of TCM, Nanjing 210023, China; Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine Processing, Engineering Center of State Ministry of Education for Standardization of Chinese Medicine Processing, Nanjing 210023, China; Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, A* STAR, The Nanos, Singapore 138669, Singapore; School of Applied Science, Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore 529757, Singapore.
authors.forename: Huan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Pharmacy College of Nanjing University of TCM, Nanjing 210023, China; Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine Processing, Engineering Center of State Ministry of Education for Standardization of Chinese Medicine Processing, Nanjing 210023, China.
authors.forename: Ke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Pei
authors.affiliation: School of Applied Science, Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore 529757, Singapore.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: Pharmacy College of Nanjing University of TCM, Nanjing 210023, China; Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine Processing, Engineering Center of State Ministry of Education for Standardization of Chinese Medicine Processing, Nanjing 210023, China.
authors.forename: Kunming
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: Pharmacy College of Nanjing University of TCM, Nanjing 210023, China; Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine Processing, Engineering Center of State Ministry of Education for Standardization of Chinese Medicine Processing, Nanjing 210023, China.
authors.forename: Xinghai
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Pharmacy College of Nanjing University of TCM, Nanjing 210023, China; Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine Processing, Engineering Center of State Ministry of Education for Standardization of Chinese Medicine Processing, Nanjing 210023, China.
authors.forename: Lijuan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Pharmacy College of Nanjing University of TCM, Nanjing 210023, China; Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine Processing, Engineering Center of State Ministry of Education for Standardization of Chinese Medicine Processing, Nanjing 210023, China.
authors.forename: Xiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China.
authors.forename: Yunqing
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: Pharmacy College of Nanjing University of TCM, Nanjing 210023, China; Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine Processing, Engineering Center of State Ministry of Education for Standardization of Chinese Medicine Processing, Nanjing 210023, China. Electronic address: bccai@126.com.
authors.forename: Baochang
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cai
keywords: Intravenous administration; Linear pharmacokinetic study; Liquiritigenin; UHPLC–MS/MS