A rapid and sensitive LC–MS/MS method for quantification of quercetin‐3‐ O‐β‐ d ‐glucopyranosyl‐7‐ O‐β ‐ d ‐gentiobioside in plasma and its application to a pharmacokinetic study

A rapid and sensitive LC–MS/MS method with good accuracy and precision was developed and validated for the pharmacokinetic study of quercetin‐3‐ O‐β ‐ d ‐glucopyranosyl‐7‐ O‐β ‐ d ‐gentiobioside (QGG) in Sprague–Dawley rats. Plasma samples were simply precipitated by methanol and then analyzed by LC–MS/MS. A Venusil® ASB C 18 column (2.1 × 50 mm, i.d. 5 μm) was used for separation, with methanol–water (50:50, v /v) as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 300 μL/min. The optimized mass transition ion‐pairs ( m / z ) for quantitation were 787.3/301.3 for QGG, and 725.3/293.3 for internal standard. The linear range was 7.32–1830 ng/mL with an average correlation coefficient of 0.9992, and the limit of quantification was 7.32 ng/mL. The intra‐ and inter‐day precision and accuracy were less than ±15%. At low, medium and high quality control concentrations, the recovery and matrix effect of the analyte and IS were in the range of 89.06–92.43 and 88.58–97.62%, respectively. The method was applied for the pharmacokinetic study of QGG in Sprague–Dawley rats. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.