Development and validation of HPLC method for vicenin-1 isolated from fenugreek seeds in rat plasma: application to pharmacokinetic, tissue distribution and excretion studies.

Context: Vicenin-1, a flavonol glycoside, has potent platelet aggregation inhibition, antioxidant, radioprotectants and anti-inflammatory activities.

Objective: To establish a rapid, simple, precise and sensitive high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method for determination of vicenin-1 in rat plasma, and to investigate the pharmacokinetics, tissue distribution and excretion after a single 60 mg/kg oral dose in rats.

Materials And Methods: Vicenin-1 was extracted by solid-liquid extraction through Tulsicon ADS-400 (0.40-1.2 mm). Chromatographic separation was achieved by HPLC with a C column with a mobile phase composed of water and acetonitrile (75:25 v/v) and a flow rate of 1 mL/min along with UV detection at 210 nm.

Results: Good linearity of calibration curve was found between 10.5 and 100.5 μg/mL (R=0.995) for plasma and tissue, whereas 2.5-500 μg/mL (R=0.999) for the urine and stool samples. The extraction recoveries were 98.51-99.58% for vicenin-1 in plasma, whereas intra-day and inter-day precision were validated by relative standard deviation (%RSD), that came in the ranges of 1.16-1.79% and 1.28-1.73%, respectively. The pharmacokinetics results showed C (7.039 μg/mL) and T (2 h) after oral administration of vicenin-1. Tissue distribution study showed that the highest concentration of vicenin-1 was achieved in the liver followed by the lung. Approximately 24.2% of its administered dose was excreted via urinary excretion route.

Conclusion: The first-pass metabolism, poor solubility and presence of reducing sugar moiety in vicenin-1 may decrease its bioavailability. The developed method is sensitive, specific and was successfully applied to the pharmacokinetics, tissue distribution and excretion studies of vicenin-1 in rats.