A sensitive ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method was developed and validated to clarify pharmacokinetic properties of 15 compounds (quercetin, isorhamnetin, chlorogenic acid, isoquercitrin, caffeic acid, scopoletin, 7-hydroxycoumarin, shionone, ferulic acid, kaempferol-7-O-β-d-glucopyranoside, methyl caffeate, luteolin, kaempferol, epifriedelinol, and protocatechuic acid) in raw and honey-processed Aster tataricus. Separation was carried out on an ACQUITY UPLC® BEH C18 column (2.1 × 100 mm, 1.7 μm) using a gradient elution with mobile phase constituting 0.1% formic acid-water and 0.05% formic acid-methanol. Quantitative analysis was performed using multiple reaction monitoring detection in both positive and negative ionization modes. Calibration curves showed good linearity (r2 > 0.991) over the corresponding concentration range. The intra- and interday precisions were within 10.1%, and accuracy ranged from -11.4 to 12.4%. The extraction recoveries and matrix effects were 78.1-100.0% and 81.1-113.7%, respectively. The analytes were stable under four storage conditions with relative standard deviations less than 12.6%. The validated method was successfully applied to compare the pharmacokinetic behaviors of raw and honey-processed Aster tataricus for the first time. The results indicated that the areas under the curve (AUCs) of shionone, ferulic acid, and protocatechuic acid in honey-processed A. tataricus group were significantly lower than that of raw A. tataricus group.
Keywords: Aster tataricus; honey processing; pharmacokinetic; traditional Chinese medicine.
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