Summary: | Although farrerol, a characteristically bioactive constituent of <i>Rhododendron dauricum</i> L., exhibits extensive biological and pharmacological activities (e.g., anti-oxidant, anti-immunogenic, and anti-angiogenic) as well as a high drug development potential, its metabolism remains underexplored. Herein, we employed ultra-high performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry coupled with multiple data post-processing techniques to rapidly identify farrerol metabolites produced in vivo (in rat blood, bile, urine and feces) and in vitro (in rat liver microsomes). As a result, 42 in vivo metabolites and 15 in vitro metabolites were detected, and farrerol shown to mainly undergo oxidation, reduction, (de)methylation, glucose conjugation, glucuronide conjugation, sulfate conjugation, <i>N</i>-acetylation and <i>N</i>-acetylcysteine conjugation. Thus, this work elaborates the metabolic pathways of farrerol and reveals the potential pharmacodynamics forms of farrerol.
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