Development of a sensitive and rapid UHPLC-MS/MS method for simultaneous quantification of nine compounds in rat plasma and application in a comparative pharmacokinetic study after oral administration of Xuefu Zhuyu Decoction and nimodipine

Xuefu Zhuyu Decoction (XFZYD) is a traditional Chinese medicine prescription used for the clinical treatment of traumatic brain injury (TBI). The purpose of this work was to develop a sensitive and rapid UHPLC-MS/MS method to simultaneously study the pharmacokinetics of nimodipine and eight components of XFZYD, namely, amygdalin, hydroxysafflor yellow A, rutin, liquiritin, narirutin, naringin, neohesperidin and saikosaponin A, in rats with and without TBI. Multiple reaction monitoring was highly selective in the detection of nine analytes and the internal standard without obvious interference. The calibration curves displayed good linearity (r > 0.99) over a wide concentration range. The mean absolute recoveries of the nine analytes were 85-106%, and all matrix effects were in the range 80-120%. The intra- and inter-day precision and accuracy were acceptable (RSD