Study on differential distribution of cardiac glycoside extract from Periplocae cortex in normal and heart failure rat cardiac tissue.

Periplocae Cortex (PC) is the dried root bark of Periploca sepium Bunge, a plant belonging to the Asclepiadaceae family. Its cardiac glycoside compounds exhibit significant biological activity on the heart and demonstrate excellent therapeutic efficacy in treating chronic heart failure. This study employed ultra-performance liquid chromatography-triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-TQ-S-MS/MS) to establish a simultaneous analytical method for determining periplocin and its four metabolites (periplogenin, periplocymarin, gomphogenin, and 17α-asclepioside) in rat cardiac tissue, followed by systematic methodological validation. A rat heart failure model was established by ligating the left anterior descending coronary artery. The metabolic kinetics of each compound in the heart were compared between two groups of rats after oral administration of the cardiac glycoside extract. The results demonstrated that the established method exhibited high sensitivity and specificity, with good linearity across all compounds. Precision, accuracy, and stability all meet the requirements for bioanalytical testing. In the heart failure model group, the distribution of periplocin significantly increased in the early stage (P < 0.05), while periplocymarin accumulated markedly higher than the normal group at 6 h (P < 0.01). Furthermore, 17α-asclepioside exhibited higher exposure levels in cardiac tissue, suggesting its potential pharmacological significance. This study provided crucial evidence for elucidating the pharmacokinetic characteristics of cardiac glycoside compounds in PC and the pharmacological activity of their metabolites in heart failure treatment.