Quality evaluation of Pinelliae Rhizoma using network pharmacology and multi-component quantitative analysis

Background: Pinelliae Rhizoma (Banxia) is a valuable traditional Chinese medicine, and its quality issues are related to the safety and effectiveness of the medicine. Several pharmacological experiments have shown that Pinelliae Rhizoma has anti-inflammatory activity, but the specific chemical components remain unclear. Methods: In the present study, network pharmacology was used to analyze the potential active ingredients and molecular mechanisms of Pinelliae Rhizoma's anti-inflammatory activity. A new approach to simultaneously determine eight components using high performance liquid chromatography photo-diode array was developed to evaluate the quality of Pinelliae Rhizoma and different processed Pinelliae Rhizoma products. Results: Twelve active ingredients were identified from Pinelliae Rhizoma, and beta-sitosterol may have a greater effect than the other active ingredients. Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analyses revealed the main pathways associated with Pinelliae Rhizoma's mechanism for treating inflammation. Additionally, the beta-sitosterol content in different processed Pinelliae Rhizoma products decreased significantly, and the level of five nucleosides in Pinelliae Rhizoma was significantly higher than that of the processed Pinelliae Rhizoma products. The 6-gingerol content was detected in eight Pinelliae Rhizoma Praeparatum cum Zingibere et Alumine batches with different origins, and liquiritin and liquiritigenin levels were detected in eight batches of Pinelliae Rhizoma Praeparatum with different origins. Conclusion: Pinelliae Rhizoma quality was affected by different regions and different processing methods, and this research provides a reference for Pinelliae Rhizoma quality evaluation.