A novel ultra high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method for the simultaneous determination of xanthones and steroidal saponins in crude and salt-processed Anemarrhenae Rhizoma aqueous extracts.

We established a rapid and sensitive ultra high-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method for the simultaneous quantification of xanthones and steroidal saponins in rat plasma. Chromatographic separation was achieved on a C column with a mobile phase comprising acetonitrile and 0.1% formic acid. The detection was performed by negative electrospray ionization in multiple reaction monitoring mode. The validated method showed good linearity within the tested range (r > 0.9945). The intra- and interday precision at high, medium, and low concentrations was less than 7.96%. The bias of accuracies ranged from -1.92 to 9.62%. The extraction recoveries of the compounds ranged from 84.78 to 88.69%, and the matrix effects ranged from 96.76 to 108.59%. This method was successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic comparison of crude and salt-processed Anemarrhenae Rhizoma aqueous extracts after oral administration in rats. The maximum plasma concentration and area under concentration-time curve of timosaponin BIII and timosaponin AIII increased significantly (P < 0.05 or 0.01) and those of timosaponin BII decreased significantly (P < 0.05) after processing. These results could contribute to the clinical application of crude and salt-processed Anemarrhenae Rhizoma and reveal the processing mechanism.