Pharmaceutica Analytica Acta

Abstract

Determination of Sodium Tanshinone Iia Sulfonate in Rat Plasma by High Performance Liquid Chromatography and its Application to Pharmacokinetics Studies

Guo Lin, Jiang Jian and Rao Yuliang

A rapid high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method for the determination of sodium tanshinone IIA sulfonate (STS) in rat plasma is developed and validated. Sample preparation is accomplished through protein precipitation with methanol. The analyte and internal standard tanshinone I sulfonate are separated on an Agilent Extend C18 analytical column, using a mixture of methanol and triethylamine (0.1) (60:40, v/v) as the mobile phase. The low limit of quantification is 0.2 μg/mL, and the method is linear over the concentration range of 0.2-50 μg/mL for STS. The within- and between-run precisions (RSD) are within 5.8, mean extraction yields are always higher than 93.40, and it proves to be stable during all sample storing, preparation and analytic procedures. The method is successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study after an intravenous administration of STS to rats at a dose of 6 mg/ kg and pharmacokinetics is described by a three-compartment open model.