Ethnopharmacological relevance: Abrus mollis, a commonly used traditional Chinese medicine in China and other Asia countries, has been used clinically to prevent and treat hepatitis and alcoholic liver disease for decades.
Materials and methods: A modified HPLC-MS method was developed for the determination of vicenin-2 (AM-I), isoschaftoside (AM-II), and schaftoside (AM-III) of AM extract (AME) in rat plasma and tissues (heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys). Following oral administration of AME to rat at a dose of 200mg/kg, the concentrations of AM-I, II and III in plasma and tissues were quantified. An integrated double peak pharmacokinetics model was used to fit the concentration-time curves. The effects of drug on the bile flow and toe swelling of rats induced by carrageenan were also studied.
Results: The limit of quantitation of this modified HPLC-MS method decreased from 25 to 5ng/mL for plasma and from 100 to 10ng/g for tissue. These concentration-time curves show two successive maximum concentrations. The results of integrated double peak pharmacokinetics in this paper indicated that the three flavonoid C-glycosides may be absorbed by two sites of intestine in vivo. These results of bile flow and toe swelling showed a significant correlation between the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics.
Conclusions: The novel integrated double peak pharmacokinetic approach to studying the holistic pharmacokinetic properties of traditional Chinese medicine has been successfully developed and validated using AM as a model drug. This study would be a useful guide for the holistic double peak pharmacokinetic study in consistence with the intrinsic theory and characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine.
Keywords: Abrus mollis; Correlation between pharmacokinetics and bio-effect; Double peak curve; Flavonoid C-glycosides; Integrated pharmacokinetics.
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