Determination of Jasminoidin in Rabbit Plasma for the Pharmacokinetic Investigation after Single Dose Oral Administration of Gardenia jasminoides Ellis and Gardenia jasminoides Ellis Coupling Coptis chinensis Franch Extracts

Monitoring of Natural Pigments in Henna and Jagua Tattoos for Fake Detection

Temporary tattoos are a popular alternative to permanent ones. Some of them use natural pigments such as lawsone in the famous henna tattoos. Recently, jagua tattoos, whose main ingredients are genipin and geniposide, have emerged as an interesting option. This study was conducted to identify the presence and concentration of henna and jagua active ingredients (lawsone; genipin and geniposide, respectively) in commercial tattoo samples. Since natural pigments are often mixed with additives such as p-phenylenediamine (PPD) in the case of henna, PPD has been included in the study. Green and simple extraction methods based on vortex or ultrasound-assisted techniques have been tested. To determine the compounds of interest liquid chromatography (LC) with diode-array detection (DAD) has been applied; and PPD absence was confirmed by LC-QTOF (quadrupole-time of flight tandem mass spectrometry). This work demonstrated that only one out of 14 henna samples analyzed contained lawsone. For jaguas, genipin was found in all samples, while geniposide only in two. Therefore, quality control analysis on these semi-permanent tattoos is considered necessary to detect these ingredients in commercial mixtures, as well as to uncover possible fraud in products sold as natural henna.

Microdialysis sampling combined with ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry for the determination of geniposide in dialysate of joint cavities in adjuvant arthritis rats

RATIONALE

Microdialysis has been used to detect the concentrations of drugs in tissues. Geniposide (GE), an iridoid glycoside compound, is the main bioactive component of Gardenia jasminoides Ellis fruit. We previously demonstrated that GE could control the activity of cytokines and reduce levels of inflammation in adjuvant arthritis (AA) rats, but the topic of concentration changes over time in the joint synovia of AA is scarcely studied.

METHODS

In this study, microdialysis technique combined with ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS) was set up and confirmed to assay GE in the dialysate of the joint cavity in AA rats. Mass detection was conducted in multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode with negative electro-spray ionization, and Paeoniflorin (Pae) was used as an internal standard (IS).

RESULTS

A lower limit of quantitation (LLOQ) of 5 ng/mL was found in this method and with good linearity in the range of 5-4000 ng/mL. All the validation data including accuracy, precision, intra and inter-day repeatability and stability meet the requirements. The relative recoveries of GE were determined at approximately 40.01%.

CONCLUSIONS

The measurements based on microdialysis combined with UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS provide a method for sampling and rapid sensitive analysis of GE in dialysate of joint cavity in AA rats. This method should be considered for future pharmacokinetics studies.

Comparative pharmacokinetics study after oral administration of geniposide in normal rats and adjuvant-induced arthritis rats by UPLC-MS/MS

A simple and rapid ultra-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-ESI-MS/MS) method for quantitative analysis of geniposide (GE) in rat plasma was developed, validated and applied to determine the level of GE in rat plasma after oral administration of GE in adjuvant-induced arthritis (AA) and normal rats. The investigation showed that there were significant differences in the groups between the normal rat and AA rat in pharmacokinetics parameters, such as the area under the time versus drug concentration curve (AUC(0-∞)) (3.77 ± 0.68 versus 2.27 ± 0.42, p < 0.05), the apparent volume of distribution (V) (140.41 ± 2.07 versus 136.51 ± 1.03, p < 0.05), the mean residence time (MRT) (3.98 ± 0.90 versus 3.80 ± 0.50, p < 0.05) and the clearance from the total body (CL) (16.10 ± 2.87 versus 26.44 ± 4.94, p < 0.05). The results indicated that AA could alter the pharmacokinetics of the drug and these experimental findings could be useful for the further study of the clinical applications of GE.

A sensitive liquid chromatographic-mass spectrometric method for simultaneous quantification of six iridoid glycosides from Zhi-zi-chi Decoction in rat plasma and its application to a pharmacokinetic study

A sensitive liquid chromatographic-mass spectrometric (LC-MS) method was developed and validated for simultaneous determination of geniposide, geniposidic acid, scandoside methyl ester, gardenoside, deacetyl asperulosidic acid methyl ester and genipin-1-β-gentiobioside after oral administration of Zhi-zi-chi Decoction in rat plasma. The six iridoid glycosides were extracted from plasma samples by protein precipitation, and then separated on an Apollo C18 column (250 mm × 4.6mm, 5 μm) through the application of a gradient elution. The analytes were monitored in positive electrospray ionization by selected ion monitoring mode (SIM). The lower limits of quantitation (LLOQ) of the six analytes were all lower than 6 ng/mL. The accuracy (relative error, RE%) was between -7.0% and 9.9%, while the intra- and inter-day precisions (relative standard deviation, RSD%) were less than 6.3% and 9.8% for the six analytes, respectively. The developed method was successfully applied to a comparative pharmacokinetic study of the six iridoids in rat plasma after oral administration of Zhi-zi-chi Decoction and Gardenia jasminoides extract.

Simultaneous quantification of three iridoids in rat plasma after oral administration of Zhi-zi-chi decoction using LC-MS

A sensitive and efficient liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) method was developed and validated for the simultaneous determination of geniposide, 6α-hydroxygeniposide, and genipin gentiobioside in rat plasma. After the addition of internal standard (I.S.) salidroside and acidification (formic acid, 0.1%), plasma samples were carried out by protein precipitation with acetonitrile and separated on a Kromasil C(18) column (200 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) within a runtime of 15.0 min. The linear ranges were 2-250 ng/mL for both 6α-hydroxygeniposide and genipin gentiobioside and 2-2000 ng/mL for geniposide, respectively. The lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) was 2 ng/mL for all the analytes. The validated method was successfully applied to the pharmacokinetics study of geniposide, 6α-hydroxygeniposide, and genipin gentiobioside in rats after oral administration of Zhi-zi-chi decoction.