Comparative Pharmacokinetics of Alkaloids and Triterpenes in Rats after Oral Administration of Phellodendron Chinensis Cortex and Its Processed Products

Phellodendron Chinensis Cortex,
also called Chuan Huang Bo (CHB), is
widely used in traditional Chinese medicine clinics.
Its broad scope of application is dependent on processing it
with honey, salt-water, or rice-wine. To
elucidate the significance of processing, a UPLC-QqQ-MS method was
developed in this study to determine the content of berberine, phellodendrine, magnoflorine,
limonin, and obacunone in rat plasma after
the oral administration of aqueous
extracts of Phellodendron Chinensis Cortex and its processed products. Results show that processing CHB alters
the bioavailability, absorption, and clearance rate of berberine, phellodendrine, magnoflorine, limonin, and
obacunone. There
are differences in
the in
vivo pharmacokinetic behavior of CHB
and its processed products of berberine, phellodendrine, magnoflorine,
limonin, and obacunone. This
paper contributes a pharmacokinetics perspective to the current understanding of the significance of processing CHB with honey, salt-water, and
rice-wine.