Comparative pharmacokinetics of five primary constituents in Huai-hua powder: a study on normal rats and rats with ulcerative colitis.

Objectives: The goal of this research was to develop a fast, reliable, and sensitive method to simultaneously quantify five key components of Huai-hua Powder (HHP) in rat plasma with genistein served as the internal standard. Furthermore, the established method was used to perform a comparative evaluation of the pharmacokinetic properties of HHP in normal rats and rats with ulcerative colitis (UC).

Methods: Chromatographic separation was conducted using an ACQUITY HSS T3 column held at a constant temperature of 35°C, with acetonitrile and a 0.1% formic acid solution in water employed as the mobile phases. Multiple-reaction monitoring facilitated MS operation in positive-negative-ion-switching mode. The method's validation demonstrated exceptional linearity (with a correlation coefficient of r ≥ 0.9970), and the validation tests, encompassing precision within and between days, accuracy, recovery, matrix effect, and stability; all met the predefined acceptable criteria.

Key findings: The results revealed significant variations in the pharmacokinetic characteristics of the five components between normal and UC rats, suggesting altered drug metabolism rates and extents in the latter group.

Conclusions: These findings offer crucial scientific insights into the potential clinical application of HHP, particularly in the context of treating UC.