Pharmacokinetic Characteristics of Steamed Notoginseng by an Efficient LC–MS/MS Method for Simultaneously Quantifying Twenty-three Triterpenoids

Steamed Panax notoginseng (SNG) has been widely used as a restorative medicine instead of the raw one, but its pharmacokinetic profile is entirely unknown. To address this, we’ve developed an LC–MS/MS method with high efficiency and sensitivity for simultaneous quantification of 23 triterpenoids (notoginsenosides Fa, Fc, R1, 20­(S)-R2, 20­(R)-R2, ginsenosides F4, Rb1, Rg1, Rd, Re, Rb2, 20­(S)-Rh1, 20­(R)-Rh1, Rh4, Rk 1, Rk 3, 20­(S)-Rg2, 20­(S)-Rg3, 20­(R)-Rg3, Rg5, C–K, 20­(S)-PPT, 20­(S)-PPD) from SNG in rat plasma. This validated approach exhibits great linearity, precision, accuracy, recovery, and stability for all analytes. Furthermore, we, for the first time, applied this method to the pharmacokinetic study of SNG and proposed Rb1, Fa, Rd, Rk 1, Rg5, Rk 3, Rh4, and 20­(S)-PPD to be suitable pharmacokinetic markers of SNG due to their high exposure levels of systemic plasma. Hence, this developed approach would be a powerful tool for future in vivo investigation of various sources of notoginseng-related samples.