LAUSR

A rapid and accurate ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry(UPLC-MS/MS) method was established and validated for the measurement of two forms of cardamonin, i.e., free and glucuronidated, in the plasma and bile of rats. Cardamonin and an internal standard (1,8-dihydroxyanthraquinone) were extracted from plasma and bile with ethyl ether via liquid-liquid extraction. The analytes in the extracts were separated by an Agilent Zorbax Stable Bond-C18 column(2.1 mm×50 mm, 1.8 µm) under isocratic elution conditions[acetonitrile(A) and 0.1% ammonium formate in water(B), 40:60(volume ratio)] with a flow rate of 0.4 mL/min, and mass spectrometry in negative ion MRM mode was implemented for analysis. Good linearity over the wide ranges of 0.01–5 µg/mL for plasma and 0.025–10 µg/mL for bile samples was acquired. Method validation was performed according to the FDA guidelines for bioanalytical methods.