A liquid chromatographic-mass spectrometric evidence of dihydrosanguinarine as a first metabolite of sanguinarine transformation in rat.

Adult rats were orally administered with a single dose of sanguinarine (10 mg SA per 1 kg body weight) in 1.0 ml water. In the plasma and the liver, dihydrosanguinarine (DHSA) was identified as a SA metabolite by high performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HPLC/ESI-MS). Significantly higher levels of DHSA were found in both the plasma and the liver in comparison with those of SA. SA and DHSA were not detected in the urine. The formation of DHSA might be the first step of SA detoxification in the organism and its subsequent elimination in phase II reactions. Benz[c]acridine (BCA), in the literature cited SA metabolite, was found neither in urine nor in plasma and liver.