LC-MS determination and pharmacokinetic study of salidroside in rat plasma after oral administration of traditional chinese medicinal preparation rhodiola crenulata extract

A simple, rapid and sensitive liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) method was developed for the quantification of salidroside in rat plasma and the study of its pharmacokinetics after oral administration of 15 g kg ^-1 Rhodiola crenulata extract to Wistar rats. A 200 μL plasma sample was extracted by acetonitrile and performed on Kromasil C₁₈ column (150 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) with the mobile phase of acetonitrile-water (11:89) within a run time of 8 min. The analyte was monitored with electrospray ionization (ESI) by selected ion monitoring (SIM) mode. The target ions were m/z 299.20 for salidroside and m/z 150.00 for internal standard (IS) paracetamol. A good linear relationship was obtained over the range of 100-20,000 ng mL^-1 and the lower limit of quantification was 100 ng mL^-1. The validated method was successfully applied for the pharmacokinetic study of salidroside in rat. After oral administration of Rhodiola crenulata extract, the main pharmacokinetic parameters T _max, T _1/2, C _max, AUC _0-t and AUC _0-∞ were 0.56 ± 0.21 h, 7.91 ± 4.42 h, 3,386 ± 2,138 ng mL^-1, 16,146 ± 6,558 ng h mL^-1 and 18,599 ± 6,529 ng h mL^-1, respectively.