Evaluation of pharmacokinetic herb-drug interaction of diabecon and losartan by UHPLC-MS/MS

•Diabecon is a herbal mixture which is used as anti-diabetic and has the potential to interfere with the cytochrome enzyme pathway.•Diabetic patients often have hypertension as a common co-morbidity, and losartan is frequently prescribed to manage it.•A highly sensitive UHPLC-MS/MS method was developed and validated according to USFDA guidelines for estimating losartan.•The pharmacokinetic interaction between diabecon and losartan was evaluated in rats after 28 days of oral administration.•The study was first reported on the pharmacokinetic interactions of diabecon and losartan in rats. The diabecon is an ayurvedic herbal formulation that contains a mixture of herbs traditionally used as antidiabetic which is reported in the ayurvedic pharmacopeia of India and Indian Materia medica. The diabetic population has a common co-morbidity of hypertension for which losartan drug is commonly used for the treatment of hypertension. However, there is a lack of research on the pharmacokinetics interaction between diabecon and losartan. This research aims to investigate the influence of diabecon on the pharmacokinetics of losartan drugs in rats by establishing a highly sensitive ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) method. The method was validated according to the USFDA guidelines and was applied for the pharmacokinetic study. The lowest concentration of losartan detection in rat plasma was found to be 1 ng/mL and the accuracy and precision were within the linear range (1–1500 ng/mL). The results revealed that after 28 days of dosing diabecon, it has altered the pharmacokinetic parameters like area under the curve (AUC0-t), drug clearance (Cl/F), and rate of elimination (Ke) of losartan, which may happen due to enzyme induction. Although there was a change in the pharmacokinetic parameters of losartan when administered in the presence of diabecon, it was found to be nonsignificant in rats (p > 0.05). According to the best of our knowledge, this is the first article that discusses the pharmacokinetic herb-drug interaction between diabecon and losartan.