Pharmacokinetic comparison of fifteen active compositions in rat plasma after oral administration of raw and honey-processed Aster tataricus extracts

A sensitive ultra-high performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry method was developed and validated to clarify pharmacokinetic properties of 15 compounds (quercetin, isorhamnetin, chlorogenic acid, isoquercitrin, caffeic acid, scopoletin, 7-hydroxycoumarin, shionone,ferulic acid, kaempferol-7-O-β-D-glucopyranoside, methyl caffeate, luteolin, kaempferol,epifriedelinol, and protocatechuic acid) in raw and honey-processed Aster tataricus. Separation was carried out on an ACQUITY UPLC® BEH C18 column (2.1 × 100 mm, 1.7 µm) using a gradient elution with mobile phase constituting 0.1% formic acid-water and 0.05% formic acid-methanol.Quantitative analysis was performed using multiple reaction monitoring detection in both positive and negative ionization modes. Calibration curves showed good linearity (r2 > 0.991) over the corresponding concentration range. The intra-day and inter-day precisions were within 10.1%, and accuracy ranged from -11.4% to 12.4%. The extraction recoveries and matrix effects were 78.1%–100.0% and 81.1%–113.7%, respectively. The analytes were stable under four storage conditions with relative standard deviations less than 12.6%. The validated method was successfully applied to compare the pharmacokinetic behaviors of raw and honey-processed Aster tataricus for the first time. The results indicated that the AUCs of shionone, ferulic acid, and protocatechuic acid in honey-processed Aster tataricus group were significantly lower than that of raw Aster tataricus group. ......   Standards, including quercetin, isorhamnetin, scopoletin, 7-hydroxycoumarin, shionone, kaempferol-7-O-β-D-glucopyranoside, methyl caffeate, luteolin, kaempferol, protocatechuic acid, and icariin (internal standard, IS) (purity ≥ 98%) were purchased from Chengdu Desite Bio-Technology Co., Ltd. (Chengdu, China).