Cerebral nuclei distribution study of dehydrodiisoeugenol as an anxiogenic agent determined by RP-HPLC.

A sensitive RP-HPLC–DAD method was established to quantify dehydrodiisoeugenol (DDIE) in rat cerebral nuclei. The assay procedure involved one-step extraction of DDIE and daidzein, as an internal standard, from rat plasma and various cerebral nuclei with ethyl acetate. Chromatographic separation was performed on a Diamonsil™ ODS C18 column with methanol–water (81:19, v/v) as a mobile phase. The UV absorbance of the samples was measured at the wavelength of 270nm. The analysis method was proved to be precise and accurate at linearity ranges in plasma and each cerebral nucleus with correlation coefficients of ≥0.9971. The results indicated that the method established was successfully applied to cerebral nuclei distribution study of DDIE after intravenous administration at a single dose of 40mg/kg to rat. DDIE showed high concentration in all of cerebral nuclei at 8min, which indicated that DDIE could cross the blood–brain barrier rapidly and might be one of the main bioactive substances of nutmeg. The results provide fundamental data for evaluating the effects of DDIE on the central nervous system and to be developed into an effective anxiogenic agent.