Pharmacokinetic study of mangiferin in human plasma after oral administration

Mangiferin, an active component of traditional Chinese herbal medicine, although it is reported to have various pharmacological effects, the limited number of pharmacokinetic studies limit its wide application. To evaluate the pharmacokinetics of mangiferin in human, a sensitive high performance liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (HPLC–MS) method for the determination of mangiferin in human plasma was developed. The proposed HPLC–MS method is selective, precise and accurate enough and enables the identification and quantification of mangiferin for the use in clinical studies. After single oral administration of 0.1, 0.3 and 0.9 g mangiferin, respectively, the method was successfully applied for the pharmacokinetics of mangiferin in 21 healthy male Chinese volunteers. The pharmacokinetic of mangiferin was fit to the non-compartmental model. The pharmacokinetics parameters were calculated. Mangiferin concentration in plasma reached 38.64 ± 6.75 ng/mL about 1 h after oral administration of 0.9 g mangiferin and the the apparent elimination half-life (t1/2) was 7.85 ± 1.72 h. The absorption of mangiferin was increased with the administration of a large dose and it was concluded that the pharmacokinetics of mangiferin in human was nonlinear.