Pharmacokinetic study of ginsenoside Re after vaginal administration in rabbits by UPLC-MS/MS determination

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 to500 ng/mL(r = 0.9999). The low limit of quantification of 5 ng/m L 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 more than 64.0%. The pharmacokinetic parameters for vaginal administration were as follows: Tm ax, 0.5 h; C max, 20.88 ng/mL; AUC0-t, 64.71 h · ng/mL and the residence time was3.06 h. By using deconvolution calculation method, the cumulative absorption fraction of GRe was about0.89%.Conclusion: The systemic exposure of GRe was minimal after vaginal administration of Xiaomi suppository.