Simultaneous determination of cucurbitacin IIa and cucurbitacin IIb of Hemsleya amabilis by HPLC–MS/MS and their pharmacokinetic study in normal and indomethacin‐induced rats

A selective and sensitive HPLC–MS/MS method was developed for the simultaneous determination of cucurbitacin IIa (cuIIa) and cucurbitacin IIb (cuIIb), the major bioactive cucurbitacins of Hemsleya amabilis, in rat plasma using euphadienol as internal standard (IS). After liquid–liquid extraction with dichloromethane, separation was achieved on a Syncronis HPLC C₁₈ column (150 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) using an isocratic mobile phase system consisting of acetonitrile–water (85:15, v/v) at a flow rate of 0.6 mL/min with a split ratio of 1:2. Detection was performed on a TSQ Quantum Ultra mass spectrometer equipped with an positive‐ion electrospray ionization source. The lower limits of quantification (LLOQs) were 0.25 and 0.15 ng/mL for cuIIa and cuIIb, respectively. The intra‐ and inter‐day precision was <11.5% for the LLOQs and each quality control level of the analytes, and accuracy was between ?9.1 and 7.6%. The extraction recoveries of the analytes and IS from rat plasma were all >87.1%. The method was fully validated and applied to compare the pharmacokinetic profiles of the two cucurbitacins in rat plasma after oral administration of H. amabilis extract between normal and indomethacin‐induced rats. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.