Structural elucidation of in vivo and in vitro metabolites of anisodine by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

Liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESIMSn) was employed to investigate the in vivo and in vitro metabolism of anisodine. Feces, urine and plasma samples were collected after ingestion of 20 mg anisodine to healthy rats. Feces and urine samples were cleaned up by liquid-liquid extraction and solid-phase extraction procedures (C18 cartridges), respectively. Methanol was added to plasma samples to precipitate plasma proteins. Anisodine was incubated with homogenized liver and intestinal flora of rats in vitro, respectively, followed by extraction with ethyl acetate. LC-MSn was used for the separation and identification of the metabolites using C18 column with mobile phase of methanol/0.01% triethylamine solution (2 mM, adjusted to pH 3.5 with formic acid) (60:40, v/v). The results revealed that five metabolites (norscopine, scopine, alpha-hydroxytropic acid, noranisodine and hydroxyanisodine) and the parent drug existed in feces. Three new metabolites (dimethoxyanisodine, tetrahydroxyanisodine and trihydroxy-methoxyanisodine) were identified in urine. Four metabolites (norscopine, scopine, hydroxyanisodine and anisodine N-oxide) and the parent drug were detected in plasma. Two hydrolyzed metabolites (scopine and alpha-hydroxytropic acid) were found in rat intestinal flora incubation mixture, and two metabolites (aponoranisodine and anisodine N-oxide) were identified in homogenized liver incubation mixture.