Development of an HPLC method for the determination of salidroside in beagle dog plasma after administration of salidroside injection: application to a pharmacokinetics study

A simple RP-HPLC method was established for the determination of salidroside in dog plasma. Salidroside is one of the most active ingredients of Rhodiola L. The method had within-run precision values in the range of +/- 2.3 to +/- 9.1% (n = 5) and between-run precision in the range of +/- 3.2 to +/- 9.8%. A simple protein precipitation for salidroside extraction was processed using ACN at precipitant-to-plasma volume ratio (P-P ratio) of 3:2. The extraction recoveries of salidroside at seven concentrations were higher than 63.2%. There was a linear relationship between chromatographic area and concentration over the range of 0.83-520 microg/mL for salidroside in plasma (R = 0.9926). The LOQ (S/N = 10) of the method was 0.83 microg/mL. The method was applied in a study of the pharmacokinetics of salidroside injection in six beagle dogs. The major pharmacokinetic parameters of C(max), AUC(0-24), AUC(0-infinity), and t(1/2) of salidroside in beagle dogs after i.v. administration of a single 75 mg/kg (5 mL/kg) dose were 96.16 +/- 8.59 microg/mL, 180.3 +/- 30.6 microg h/mL, 189.3 +/- 32.1 microg h/mL, and 2.006 +/- 0.615 h, respectively.