Comparative pharmacokinetic study on three formulations of Astragali Radix by an LC–MS/MS method for determination of formononetin in human plasma

Abstract Astragali Radix (AR) is a widely used traditional Chinese medicine for healing the cardiovascular, liver and immune systems. Recently, superfine pulverizing technology has been applied to developing novel formulations to improve bioavailability of the active constituents in herbs, such as ultrafine granular powder of AR. In this study, a universal and sensitive quantitative method based on LC–MS/MS was employed for determining formononetin, the main flavonoid in AR, in human plasma for comparative pharmacokinetics of three oral formulations of AR. Formononetin and IS (quercetin) were extracted by ethyl acetate from human plasma and were separated on a C 18 column with a mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile and 0.1% formic acid. Positive‐ion electrospray‐ionization mode was applied in mass spectrometric detection. The quantitative method was validated with regards to selectivity, linearity, accuracy and precision, matrix effect, extraction recovery and stability, and was applied to comparing the pharmacokinetics of ultrafine granular powder (UGP), ultrafine powder (UP) and traditional decoction pieces (TDP) of AR after oral administration. The peak concentration and areas under the concentration–time curve of formononetin in UGP and UP were significantly higher than those of TDP. UGP and UP could significantly improve the bioavailability of AR in human compared with TDP after oral administration.