Abstract: Objective Ointment of compound Chinese medicine having definite effect on treating tumor effusion was formulated for external application.The characteristics of percutaneous absorption of borneol,which is one of the effective ingredients in the compound prescription was quantitatively investigated.Gas chromatography was used to determine borneol in ointment and in biological sample,the ascites of ascites line(H22) mice in vivo.Methods In this study,the concentration of borneol in model mouse ascites was detected as a sign of this prescription permeating skin after external application.H22 mice were given the external ointment of compound Chinese medicine on abdominal skin,and then,the ascites of mice were drawn at different time intervals since external application.The concentration of borneol in mice ascites were separately determined by gas chromatography.Results The chromatograms showed that borneol in the ascites samples of mice can not be determined at 15 min after being given externally,but at 30 min,the average concentration of borneol in ascites was 1.707 mg/L.It reached its peak value(9.588 mg/L) at 4 h after being given the ointment.Then it declined 4 h later,the average concentration of borneol in ascites decreased suddenly at 6 h,the average concentration of borneol in ascites further declined copiously after 6 h,and then it declined slowly,the average concentration of borneol in ascites was 4.935 mg/L at 8 h after the external application of ointment.Conclusion The results shows that borneol,the main effective ingredients of the external ointment of compound Chinese medicine can be determined in H22 mice ascites after external application.This indicates that the effective ingredients of the ointment can be absorbed through mice skin,and it can have effect on reaching the target organ.The percutaneous absorption takes place slowly and keeps effective long.Gas chromatography can be used to determine borneol in biological sample,and the method used in this test was efficient and accurate.This method is better than the commonly used,radioisotope scanner,it avoids pollution and the operation is easy.

Key words: percutaneous absorption, borneol, gas chromatography, in vivo, analyse in quantity