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The petals of Carthamus tinctorius L. (safflower) is an important traditional medicine for promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis. The pharmacokinetic properties of multiple safflower constituents have not been fully understood. In the present research, an ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-triple quadrupole mass method in dynamic multiple reaction monitoring mode was developed and validated to simultaneously quantify in rat plasma of five different characteristic types of safflower constituents, including chalcone, poly-acetylene, glycoside of 6-hydroxykaempferol, etc. All the five constituents, hydroxysafflor yellow A, bidenoside C, 6-hydroxykaempferol-3,6-diglucoside, chlorogenic acid, and p-coumaric acid were detected in rat plasma after oral administration of safflower powder. p-Coumaric acid was the most quickly absorbed one with Tmax of 0.1 hr. The poly-acetylene constituent, bidenoside C, displayed the largest AUC0-t value (2177.796 ng · h/L) followed by hydroxysafflor yel...

Nine compounds including a new A-type proanthocyanidin trimer, epicatechin-(2β→O→7,4β→8)-[catechin-(6→4β)]-epicatechin (8), and a known trimer, epicatechin-(4β→8)-epicatechin-(2β→O→7,4β→8)-catechin (9), being reported for peanut skin for the first time, were isolated and purified. Their structures were determined by spectroscopic methods and by degradation reactions with L-cysteine in acidic conditions. The DPPH radical scavenging activity and the inhibitory activity on maltase and sucrase of the isolated compounds were investigated. All compounds showed strong DPPH scavenging activities (EC₅₀ < 20 μg/mL). Compound 8 showed the strongest inhibitory activity on maltase with an IC₅₀ value of 0.088 mg/mL, while compound 9 exhibited the strongest inhibition on sucrase with an IC₅₀ value of 0.091 mg/mL.

An ultra-high-performance liquid chromatograph-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry has been established and validated for the simultaneous quantification of 15 bile acids in four traditional animal medicines and their preparations. The separations of bile acids were performed on an Agilent ZORBAX Eclipse XDB-C18 column (50 × 2.1 mm; 1.8 μm) with methanol-0.1% formic acid as the mobile phase. Glycyrrhetinic acid was added as internal standard owing to its similar physiochemical properties with the bile acids. Using this condition, detected in the multiple reaction monitoring mode, the 15 bile acids, including three groups of isomers, were well quantified individually. Method validation showed that the linear regression relationship (r(2), 0.9993 - 0.9999), precisions (intra-day RSD, 0.96 - 4.31%; inter-day, 1.73 - 4.43%), and recovery (95.3 - 120.9%) were all satisfactory. The analysis results showed that bear bile and bezoar (Niu Huang) as well as their formulations contained large amounts of most of the 15 bile acids. In addition, this research revealed for the first time the presences of bile acids in animal waste medication used in traditional medicine from two clinics, Hei-Bing-Pian (discharges of wild boar) and Trogopterus Dung. The established method could be used for the quantification of other bile- or animal waste-based crude drugs and their formulated products.