Shi Shan, Luo Yifan, Ma Yue, Chu Yanjie, Wang Yidan, Chen Xiaohui, Chu Yang
Department of Pharmacy, The First Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, China.
Department of Pharmaceutical Analysis, School of Pharmacy, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang, China.
Ann Transl Med. 2021 Aug;9(15):1247. doi: 10.21037/atm-21-3245.
Caoguo (), a traditional Chinese medicine, is widely used as medicine and dietary spices. Volatile components are among its important bioactive constituents used to treatment of abdominal distension and pain, but the mechanism is not clear up to now. The purpose of this study was to develop a simple, sensitive, and accurate method to analyze and identify components of Caoguo and , and further investigate the therapeutic mechanism of Caoguo on indigestion using network pharmacology.
Caoguo were extracted by accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) and n-hexane:ethyl acetate (1:1, v/v) was selected as the extraction solvent. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was adopted to analyze and identify the volatile components and . Network pharmacology including protein-protein network construction, Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment and pathway enrichment analysis and component-target-pathway network construction was applied.
By comparing the retention times and mass spectrometry data, as well as retrieving the reference literature, a total of 169 components were tentatively identified in Caoguo extract and 43 components were identified in rats plasma samples for the first time. The results of network pharmacology analysis indicated that the potential mechanism was mainly associated with regulation of lipolysis in adipocytes and serotonergic synapse signaling pathway, which might be responsible for the effect of indigestion.
Caoguo was first extracted by ASE and the volatile chemical components were first identified by GC-MS. Coupled with network pharmacology analysis, a network of component-target-pathway was constructed to reveal the possible mechanism of Caoguo in treatment of indigestion. This study provided a new reference method for the extraction and analysis of Caoguo, laid a chemical basis for in-depth studies on pharmacodynamics and pharmacology, and revealed an updated understanding of the therapeutic effects of Caoguo on indigestion.
草果是一种传统中药，广泛用作药物和食用香料。挥发性成分是其用于治疗腹胀和疼痛的重要生物活性成分之一，但目前其作用机制尚不清楚。本研究旨在建立一种简单、灵敏、准确的方法来分析和鉴定草果的成分，并进一步利用网络药理学研究草果治疗消化不良的作用机制。
采用加速溶剂萃取法（ASE）提取草果，选择正己烷 - 乙酸乙酯（1:1，v/v）作为萃取溶剂。采用气相色谱 - 质谱联用（GC - MS）技术分析和鉴定挥发性成分。应用网络药理学方法，包括构建蛋白质 - 蛋白质网络、基因本体（GO）富集和通路富集分析以及成分 - 靶点 - 通路网络构建。
通过比较保留时间和质谱数据，并检索参考文献，在草果提取物中初步鉴定出169种成分，在大鼠血浆样本中首次鉴定出43种成分。网络药理学分析结果表明，其潜在机制主要与脂肪细胞中脂解的调节和血清素能突触信号通路有关，这可能是草果治疗消化不良的作用原因。
首次采用ASE法提取草果，并首次通过GC - MS鉴定其挥发性化学成分。结合网络药理学分析，构建了成分 - 靶点 - 通路网络，揭示了草果治疗消化不良的可能机制。本研究为草果的提取和分析提供了一种新的参考方法，为深入研究其药效学和药理学奠定了化学基础，并揭示了对草果治疗消化不良疗效的新认识。
