Simultaneous Quantification of Eight Chiral and Achiral Components in Notopterygii Rhizoma et Radix Extract and Rat Plasma Based on Chiral Stationary Phase-HPLC-MS/MS.

A chiral stationary phase-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (CSP-HPLC-MS/MS) approach was developed and validated for the first time to quantify quantification of eight components: the enantiomers of three chiral components notopterol, oxypeucedanin hydrate, oxypeucedanin (in total six configurations), and achiral components nodakenin, imperatorin, isoimperatorin, bergapten, and ferulic acid, in Notopterygii Rhizoma et Radix. By adjusting the types of chiral stationary phase and the composition ratio of the mobile phase, methanol-acetonitrile (75:25, v/v) was selected as the mobile phase (flow rate 0.5 mL/min), and three chiral components notopterol, oxypeucedanin hydrate, and oxypeucedanin were successfully separated into their enantiomers with Chiralpak IG. The method was applied to analyze both plant extracts and rat plasma samples. A considerable variation in content was observed among the eight components in the plant extracts, with their individual concentrations covering a wide range from 1.04 to 20 400 µg/mL (see Section 3 for details). Similarly, their plasma concentrations also spanned from 0.2 to 262.76 ng/mL. The results demonstrated significant differences in the contents of the components. Notably, the chiral components exhibited marked differences between their enantiomers, suggesting that chiral components should be considered in the quality assessment and control of natural products.