Grey Relational Analysis Combined With Network Pharmacology to Identify Antioxidant Components and Uncover Its Mechanism From Moutan Cortex

The present study determines the potential antioxidants in Moutan Cortex (MC) and predicts its targets of anti-oxidative activities. The quantitative analysis and the free radical scavenging assays were conducted to detect the main components in MC and assess its anti-oxidant activities. The grey relational analysis and the network pharmacology approach were employed to predict its key components and targets of anti-oxidant activities. Six main constitutes in MCs were quantified by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and its anti-oxidant activities were evaluated by DPPH and ABTS free radical scavenging methods. Then grey relational analysis was employed to predict the key components acting on anti-oxidative activity based on the chem-bio results. The predicted components and its mechanisms on anti-oxidation were uncovered by network pharmacology approach and cell test, respectively. The content of paeonol and paeoniflorin accounts for more than 80% the whole content of detected components. However, the two main ingredients showed a great variety among MCs. The antioxidant capacities of MCs also showed a great discrepancy based on DPPH and ABTS methods. The key components acting on anti-oxidation were identified to be paeonol, gallic acid and benzoylpaeoniflorin, and their potential therapeutic targets were predicted and verified, respectively. The present results reveal that MC has a significant antioxidant activity and the compounds of paeonol, gallic acid and benzoylpaeoniflorin could be considered as the promising antioxidant candidates with the property of suppressing oxidative stress and apoptosis.