Identification of absorbed constituents and metabolites in rat plasma after oral administration of Shen‐Song‐Yang‐Xin using ultra‐performance liquid chromatography combined with quadrupole time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry

In this study, a rapid and sensitive method by ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry, and Metabolynx(TM) software with mass defect filter technique was developed for screening and identification of the metabolites in rat plasma after oral administration of Shen-Song-Yang-Xin capsule (SSYX). A total of 92 SSYX-related xenobiotics were identified or characterized, including 45 prototypes and 47 metabolites. The results indicated that the absorbed constituents and metabolites mainly came from benzocyclooctadiene lignans, tanshinones, isoquinoline alkaloids and triterpenic acids, while phase I reactions (e.g. hydrogenation, hydroxylation, demethylation) and phase II reaction (glucuronidation) were the main metabolic pathways of these ingredients in SSYX. This is the first study on metabolic profiling of SSYX in rat plasma after oral administration. Furthermore, these findings provide useful information on the potential bioactive compounds, and enhance our understanding of the action mechanism of SSYX.