Determination of the putative cancer chemopreventive flavone tricin in plasma and tissues of mice by HPLC with UV–visible detection

AHPLC method developed and validated for the determination of tricin in human plasma published previously was cross-validated to allow measurement of the flavone tricin in plasma and tissues of mice. Blank samples of plasma, liver or intestinal mucosa were spiked with tricin at 0.5--4.0, 1.0--8.0 and 5.0--40 microg/mL, respectively. These tricin concentration ranges covered the tricin levels achieved in the mouse tissues in the dose-escalating experiments. Analysis afforded linear calibration curves with regression coefficients of >0.99. Endogenous compounds did not interfere with tricin detection when the detection wavelength was set at 355 nm, the maximum absorbance of tricin. Accuracy and precision were <15% for all concentrations in all matrices except for the precision at the lower limit of quantification (0.5 microg/mL) in mouse plasma, which was 18.4%. Consumption of diet mixed with tricin at 0.05, 0.2 or 0.5% for one week furnished steady-state levels in plasma, liver and small intestine in the 1--3 x 10(-7), 4--22 x 10(-7) and 3--46 x 10(-5) m ranges, respectively.