Antidepressant active components of the volatile oil from Nardostachyos Radix et Rhizoma based on blood-absorbed components and spectrum-effect relationship analysis

A total of 30 prototypical blood-absorbed components and 1 metabolite were detected, mainly terpenoids, of which 14 antidepressant core components were obtained through the network screening of “traditional Chinese medicine- blood absorbed components -core targets-diseases”. A total of 22 common peaks were calibrated in the established feature maps (F1-F22), and the overall similarity of the samples were all >0.8.

Cluster analysis divided the samples of different origins into three classes, and the results of principal component analysis and cluster analysis were basically the same, and the comprehensive evaluation results showed that the sample S1 was of the best quality. Gray correlation analysis showed that except for F21 and F22, the gray correlation of all the other chromatographic peaks was >0.8, indicating that the protective effect of Volatile oil of NRR on PC12 cell injury was the result of the joint action of multiple components.

Partial least squares regression analysis showed that the shared peaks of F1 (β-maaliene), F2 ((-)-aristolene), F3, F4 ((+)-calarene), F5, F7 (valerena-4,7(11)-diene), F14 (maaliol), and F16 (globulol) peaks had variable importance in projection values >1 and were positively correlated with the efficacy of NRR volatilis oil in improving PC12 cell injury, indicating that they may be the key component groups of volatilis oil in resisting PC12 cell injury.

Through the analysis of the blood-absorbed components and the spectroeffect relationship, 22 components were initially screened out as the antidepressant active components of the volatile oil of NRR, which provided a research basis for the interpretation of the antidepressant pharmacodynamic material basis and mechanism of action of NRR.