Determination of strychnine and brucine in rat plasma using liquid chromatography electrospray ionization mass spectrometry.

A simple, sensitive and selective liquid chromatography-electrospray mass spectrometric (LC-ESI-MS) method was developed and validated for simultaneous determination of strychnine and brucine in rat plasma, using tacrine as the internal standard (IS). Sample preparation involved a liquid-liquid extraction of the analytes with n-hexane, dichloromethane and isopropanol (65:30:5, v/v/v) from 0.1mL of plasma. Chromatographic separation was carried out on a Waters C(18) column using a mobile phase of methanol-20mM ammonium formate-formic acid (32:68:0.68, v/v/v). Positive selected ion monitoring mode was used for detection of strychnine, brucine and the IS at m/z 335.2, m/z 395.2 and m/z 199.2, respectively. Linearity was obtained over the concentration range of 0.5-500ng/mL for strychnine and 0.1-100ng/mL for brucine. The lower limit of quantification was 0.5ng/mL and 0.1ng/mL for strychnine and brucine, respectively. The intra- and inter-day precision for both strychnine and brucine was less than 7.74%, and accuracy ranged from -4.38% to 2.21% at all QC levels. The method has been successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study of processed Semen Strychni after oral administration to rats.