Bioavailability of phytopharmaceutical formulation

The chemical class of N-alkylamides (NAAs) are one of the active principles in Echinacea purpurea preparations. It was not clear-, wether these alkamides circulate in the human body after oral dosage of Echinacea purpurea preparations. An analytical LC-MS/MS method was developed and validated to directly quantify alkamides in blood samples. Venipuncture was considered to be too invasive for the scope of the study. Thus an LC-MS/MS method for determination of N-alkylamides in dried blood spot analysis was developed.

Research by: Götz Schlotterbeck, Irene Wegner

University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, School of Life Sciences, Institute of Chemistry and Bioanalytics, 4132 Muttenz, Switzerland