Determination of ginsenoside Rg3 in human plasma and urine by high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

Here we report a method capable of quantifying ginsenoside Rg3 in human plasma and urine. The method was validated over linear range of 2.5-1000.0 ng mL(-1) for plasma and 2.0-20.0 ng mL(-1) for urine using ginsenoside Rg1 as I.S. Compounds were extracted with ethyl acetate and analyzed by HPLC/MS/MS (API-4000 system equipped with ESI- interface and a C-18 column). The inter- and intra-day precision and accuracy of QC samples were <= 8.5% relative error and were <= 14.4% relative standard deviation for plasma; were <= 5.6% and <= 13.3% for urine. The Rg3 was stable after 24 h at room temperature, 3 freeze/thaw cycles and 131 days at -30 degrees C. This method has been applied to pharmacokinetic study of ginsenoside Rg3 in human. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.