Pharmacokinetic and tissue distribution study of eight volatile constituents in rats orally administrated with the essential oil of Artemisiae argyi Folium by GC-MS/MS.

Artemisia argyi is commonly used as a remedy for gynecological and respiratory disease in traditional Chinese medicine. The essential oil is considered as the major active ingredients of A. argyi, mainly composed of eucalyptol, α-thujone, camphor, borneol, bornyl acetate, eugenol, ß-caryophyllene, and caryophyllene oxide, while limited study addresses the in vivo disposition of these volatile ingredients. In present study, a rapid, sensitive and selective GC-MS/MS method has been developed and validated for the quantification of the eight volatile constituents in rat plasma and tissues after orally dosing with the essential oil of Artemisiae Argyi Folium (AAEO) using naphthalene as an internal standard (IS). The analytes were extracted from biosamples by liquid-liquid extraction with hexane/ethyl acetate. The GC separation was achieved on a TG-5SILMS column (30 m × 0.25 mm, 0.25 µm film thickness) and MS detection was performed on selective reaction monitoring (SRM) mode. The assay had a lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) less than 2 ng/ml for the analytes with good linearity (r ≥ 0.9907). Their disposition profile in rat plasma and tissues was characterized after orally giving AAEO, and the data revealed the analytes underwent rapid absorption from GI tract and were mainly transferred to the liver, heart, kidney, lung, and spleen with prompt elimination. The results provided a meaningful basis for guiding the pharmacodynamic study and clinical applications of this herbal medicine.

Surface modification enhances interfacial bonding in PLLA/MgO bone scaffold.

The poor interfacial bonding and resultant agglomeration of nanoparticles in polymer-based composite severely deteriorated their reinforcement effect. In this work, MgO nanoparticles (MgO-NPs) were surface modified with Poly (L-lactic acid-co-malic acid) (PLMA) to improve the interfacial compatibility in Poly-l-lactic acid (PLLA) scaffold manufactured by selective laser sintering. PLMA possess a hydrophilic end with carboxyl group (comes from the malic acid) and an l-lactic acid chain. On one hand, the carboxyl group was able to form hydrogen bonding with the hydroxyl groups of MgO-NPs. On the other hand, the l-lactic acid chain containing the hydroxyl groups could react with the carboxyl group of PLLA. Results revealed that the scaffold exhibited significantly enhanced compressive strength and modulus by 47.1% and 237.7%, respectively, which could be ascribed to the enhanced interfacial bonding between PLLA and MgO-NPs, as well as the rigid particle reinforcement. In addition, the scaffold was favorable for cell adhesion, proliferation and differentiation, owing to the improved hydrophilic and suitable pH environment. It was suggested the scaffold was a promising material for bone repair application.

Headspace, solid-phase micro-extraction, gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric analysis of terpenoids in the latex of Euphorbia species.

The volatile and semi-volatile terpenoids in the latex of Euphorbia amygdaloides, E. exigua, E. helioscopia, and E. peplus were analyzed by headspace, solid-phase micro-extraction (HS-SPME), coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The volatiles were extracted using a 100 microm polydimethylsiloxane SPME fiber under optimized extraction conditions. The compounds detected encompassed a range of chemical classes, but only terpenoids were evaluated. Only sesquiterpene hydrocarbons were detected in the tested samples of E. exigua, E. helioscopia, and E. peplus, with beta-caryophyllene being the major one, but were never recorded in latex samples of E. amygdaloides, in which only the diterpene hydrocarbon kaur-16-ene was detected. Alpha-Humulene was consistently found in samples of E. helioscopia, and E. peplus, but never in those of the other two species. These preliminary results show that the developed procedure is suitable for the analysis of small samples of Euphorbia latex and that, for each individual species, there is very little qualitative difference between samples, regardless of either place or date of collection.