Simultaneous determination of tetrahydropalmatine and tetrahydroberberine in rat urine using dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography

Dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (DLLME) coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-UV detection was applied in rat urine for the extraction and determination of tetrahydropalmatine (THP) and tetrahydroberberine (THB), both active components in Rhizoma corydalis. Various parameters affecting the extraction efficiency, such as the type and volume of extraction and dispersive solvent, pH, etc. were evaluated. Under the optimal conditions (extraction solvent: 37 μL of chloroform, dispersive solvent: 100 μL of methanol, alkaline with 100 μL of 1 mol/L NaOH, and without salt addition), the enrichment factors of THP and THB were more than 30. The extraction recoveries were 69.8-75.8% and 72.7-77.6% for THP and THB in rat urine, respectively. Both THP and THB showed good linearity in the range of 0.025-2.5 μg/mL, and the limit of quantification was 0.025 μg/mL (S/N=10, n=6). The intra-day and inter-day precision of THP and THB were <12.6%. The relative recoveries ranged from 95.5 to 107.4% and 96.8 to 100.9% for THP and THB in rat urine, respectively. The method has been successfully applied to rat urine samples. The results demonstrated that DLLME is a very simple, rapid and efficient method for the extraction and preconcentration of THP and THB from urine samples.