Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry for quantification of dioscin in rat plasma

Dioscin is a biologically active steroidal saponin with anticancer and hepatoprotective effects. A rapid, selective, and sensitive liquid chromatographic method with electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry was developed for the quantification of dioscin in rat plasma. Dioscin was extracted from rat plasma using ethyl acetate at acidic pH. The analytes were separated on a Halo C18 column using gradient elution of acetonitrile and 0.1% formic acid and detected by tandem mass spectrometry in selected reaction monitoring mode. The standard curve was linear (r² = 0.998) over the concentration range of 1-100 ng/mL. The lower limit of quantification was 1.0 ng/mL using 50 μL of plasma sample. The coefficient of variation and relative error for intra- and inter-assay at four QC levels were 1.3 to 8.0% and -5.4 to 10.0%, respectively. This method was applied successfully to the pharmacokinetic study of dioscin after oral administration of dioscin at a dose of 29.2 mg/kg in male Sprague-Dawley rats.