Characterization of the constituents in rat biological fluids after oral administration of Fufang Danshen tablets by ultra-performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry

An ultra-performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry method was established to detect as many constituents in rat biological fluids as possible after oral administration of Fufang Danshen tablets (FDTs). A C18 column (1.8 μm particle size) was adopted to separate the samples, and mass spectra were acquired in both negative and positive modes. First, the fingerprints of FDTs were established, resulting in 43 components being detected within 25 min. Among these compounds, 37 were tentatively identified by comparing the retention times and mass spectral data with those of reference standards and the reference literature; the other 6 components were tentatively assigned solely based on the MS data. In vivo, 14 components and 8 metabolites of FDT were observed in plasma, and 12 components of FDT were detected in urine. Tanshinaldehyde, danshexinkun B, a glycine conjugate of danshensu and a methylated conjugate of danshexinkun B were newly detected in rat biological fluids. This study developed a high-speed and sensitive method that was successfully utilized for screening the active ingredients of a Chinese medical formula and provided helpful chemical information for further pharmacology and active mechanism research on Chinese medicine.