Hydrophilic interaction LC-MS/MS method to avoid endogenous interference in the analysis of 4-hydroxy isoleucine from dietary supplementation of fenugreek

4-Hydroxy isoleucine is one of the potent hypoglycemic active constituents of fenugreek seeds. A method capable of reducing biological interferences is required for bioavailability studies. An isocratic separation of 4-hydroxy isoleucine from endogenous interferences was achieved in ZIC-cHILIC column using 0.1% formic acid in water and acetonitrile (20:80, % v/v) pumped at 0.5 ml/min. Quantification was performed in multiple reaction monitoring mode using the transitions of m/z 148.1 -> 102.1 and m/z 276.1 -> 142.2 for 4-hydroxy isoleucine and homatropine (as internal standard), respectively. After full method validation, 4-hydroxy isoleucine levels in human plasma and commercial fenugreek formulations were determined. This method showed good linearity in the range of 50-2000 ng/mL. Intra- and interday accuracies were in the range of 90.64-109.0% and precision was <4.82% CV. The mean (SD) plasma concentration of 4-hydroxy isoleucine in healthy individuals at 2 h after oral administration of fenugreek tablet was found to be 1590 (260) ng/mL. Half of marketed formulations were found to contain <0.05% of 4-hydroxy isoleucine content. We developed a rapid hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method for analysis of 4-hydroxy isoleucine in human plasma. This method can be applied directly to conduct the clinical pharmacokinetics studies of 4-hydroxy isoleucine in human population.