Screening of Antidepressant Index Components and Optimization of Extraction Process of Hemerocallis citrina Baroni Based on Network Pharmacology and Fingerprint

Objective: To predict and validate the antidepressant pharmacodynamic components and mechanism of action of Hemerocallis citrina Baroni (H.citrina) and to determine the optimal extraction process of H.citrina. Methods: The key active ingredients, action targets and key signaling pathways of H.citrina were selected by network pharmacology. HPLC fingerprints of H.citrina were established, and similarity evaluation was conducted on 15 batches of H.citrina fingerprints from Suqian, Jiangsu Province. The common peak and the antidepressant active components in the fingerprints were identified. The key antidepressant index components of H.citrina were determined based on the results of the fingerprints and molecular docking. An orthogonal experiment was conducted to optimize the extraction process of H.citrina. Results: According to the result of topology analysis,10 key antidepressant active ingredients in H.citrina were identified, such as isoeugenol, rutin and hyperoside. The protein-protein interaction (PPI) network of H.citrina and depressive disorder targets were constructed and cluster analysis was applied, resulted to that the active ingredient targets on 10 key proteins such as SRC, TP53, HSP90AA1. Enrichment analysis of the gene ontology (GO) function and Kyoto Encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) signaling pathway for the key anti-inflammatory targets of H.citrina were applied and 10 key KEGG signal pathways were obtained, including the cancer pathway, PI3K/Akt signaling pathway, neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction signaling pathway and so on. The HPLC fingerprints of 15 batches of H.citrina were established, and 15 common peaks were obtained. Among them, four key components of antidepressant were identified: Nechlorogenic acid, rutin, hyperoside and quercetin. Molecular docking results showed that the docking binding energies of the above components to the target were all less than −5 kcal/mol. The transfer rate of the components (total flavonoids, neochlorogenic acid and rutin) and solid yield of H. citrina were used as indicators. The extraction process of H.citrina was optimized as the ratio of material-liquid 1:10 (g/mL), the extraction process was twice, and the extraction time was 1 hour. The optimized process resulted in a transfer rate of 72.12%±0.61% for total flavonoids, 68.11%±0.65% for neochlorogenic acid, 63.40%±1.59% for rutin, and a solid yield of 52.62%±0.15%. Conclusion: Through the organic combination of network pharmacology and fingerprint, the antidepressant index components from H.citrina were screened out for extraction technology research. The optimized H.citrina extraction process of H.citrina was stable and feasible, providing a theoretical basis for the development of research on H. citrina as an antidepressant functional food.