Metabolic profiling of nuciferine in rat urine, plasma, bile and feces after oral administration using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry

[Display omitted] •15 metabolites were detected by UHPLC-DAD-QTOF-MS after oral administration of nuciferine.•Identify 7 new metabolites of nuciferine and discover a previously unmentioned metabolically active site.•The possible metabolic pathways and the fragmentation patterns of metabolites were proposed. Nuciferine, a major alkaloid found in Nelumbinis Folium, exhibits a broad spectrum of bioactivities, such as antiobesity, anti-diabetes and anti-inflammatory. However, many research regarding nuciferine focused on the extraction, isolation and biological activity, the metabolism is not comprehensively explained in vivo. Thence, the present of this paper is to establish a simple method for speculating metabolites of nuciferine. A total of 15 metabolites were detected and tentatively identified through ultra high performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-DAD-QTOF-MS), including 7 new metabolites. Among them, we also discovered a previously unmentioned metabolically active site at the C1-OCH3 position. These metabolites suggested that demethylation, oxidation, glucuronidation and sulfation were major metabolic pathways. This study provided significant experiment basis for its safety estimate and valuable information about the metabolism of nuciferine, which will be advantageous for new drug development.