Simultaneous determination of phenolic acids and diterpenoids and their comparative pharmacokinetic study in normal and acute blood stasis rats by UFLC–MS/MS after oral administration of Guan-Xin-Shu-Tong capsules

Abstract Guan-Xin-Shu-Tong capsules are one of the well-known and first-line Chinese traditional herbal formula for treating coronary heart disease. A validated and sensitive method via ultra fast liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UFLC–MS/MS) was established to simultaneously determinate five phenolic acids and four diterpenoids in rats in order to investigate their pharmacokinetic profiles firstly. Analytes were extracted by ethyl acetate and determined via multiple reaction monitoring mode in both positive and negative ion modes. The values for limit of quantification were in range of 0.025–1.250 ng/ml. Inter- and intra-day precisions were no more than 10.9% with accuracy of −11.0%–10.6%, meanwhile the stable and suitable extraction recoveries were also obtained. And finally such excellent method was used to compare the pharmacokinetics of nine compounds in normal and acute blood stasis rats after oral administration of Guan-Xin-Shu-Tong capsules.