Objective A selective and sensitive ultra performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method was employed to study the pharmacokinetics of ginsenoside Re (GRe) in rabbits after vaginal administration of Xiaomi suppository to evaluate the systemic exposure of the suppository for the local treatment. Methods Chromatographic separation was on an ACQUITY UPLC? BEH C18 column, and acetonitrile-0.1% formic acid was used as mobile phase in gradient elution. The plasma samples were deproteinized by acetonitrile, and the pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated by Winnonlin 6.4. Results Calibration curve of GRe showed a good linearity over the concentration range from 5 ng/mL to 500 ng/mL (r = 0.9999). The low limit of quantification of 5 ng/mL could satisfy the experimental requirement. The intra-day and inter-day precision of GRe at three concentrations were less than 1.96%, and the average recoveries of GRe were >64.0%. The pharmacokinetic parameters for vaginal administration were as follows: Tmax, 0.5 h; Cmax, 20.88 ng/mL; AUC0-t, 64.71 h·ng/mL and the residence time was 3.06 h. By using deconvolution calculation method, the cumulative absorption fraction of GRe was about 0.89%. Conclusion The systemic exposure of GRe was precious little after the vaginal administration of Xiaomi suppository.
Xu Han, Ying Zhang, Jia-xin Pi, Dereje Kebebe, Bing Zhang, Shu-ya Wang, Bo-ying Liu, Jing Ren, Zhi-dong Liu. Pharmacokinetic study of ginsenoside Re after vaginal administration in rabbits by UPLC-MS/MS determination[J]. Chinese Herbal Medicines (CHM),2018,10(3):304-309