Tissue distribution profiles of multiple major bioactive components in rats after intravenous administration of Xuebijing injection by UHPLC–Q–Orbitrap HRMS

Xuebijing injection (XBJI) is a traditional Chinese medicine prescription extracted from five Chinese herbs. Hydroxysafflor yellow A, oxypaeoniflorin, ferulic acid and benzoylpaeoniflorin are the main bioactive ingredients of XBJI. This paper presents an application of ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography–Q–exactive hybrid quadrupole–Orbitrap high-resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC–Q–Orbitrap HRMS) to quantify four compounds of XBJI in rats various tissues for tissue distribution studies. The analytes were separated on a Waters Acquity UHPLC ® BEH C 18 column with a gradient mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile–water (containing 0.1% formic acid) at a flow rate of 0.2 mL/min. Mass spectrometric detection was performed by parallel reaction monitoring via a heated electrospray ionization source under the negative ionization mode. The method was validated in various tissue samples, and has demonstrated great performance for rapidity, accuracy, high sensitivity and selectivity. It was successfully applied to the tissue distribution studies of XBJI after intravenous administration to rats. It was also the first study to investigate the tissue distribution of XBJI in rats and we found that the concentrations of four compounds were high in kidney, liver, stomach and intestine. The clinical use of XBJI should focus on its pharmacodynamics and safety studies in these tissues.