Anticoagulant active ingredients identification of total saponin extraction of different panax medicinal plants based on grey relational analysis combined with UPLC-MS and molecular docking

Abstract Ethnopharmacological relevance In traditional use, Panax medical plants (ginseng, red ginseng, notoginseng, Panax japonicus, and Panacis majoris rhizoma) have different bioactivities from each other, even under different dosages, but their chemical compositions are very similar; so the question is, what is the primary effective substance induced the different efficacy, and how to identify them from a group of chemical constituents? Aim of the study The goal of this research was to provide a strategy to determine the effective substance in Panax Chinese medicinal plants responsible for the anticoagulant response. Materials and methods This research used ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS) to analyze the saponin chemical compositions of different concentration ethanol extraction of notoginseng and the ginseng genus medical plant 75% ethanol extraction (Panax ginseng, red ginseng, Panax japonicas, Panacis majoris rhizome),and used four coagulation factors (PT, TT, APTT, Fib) to evaluate the anticoagulant activity of the extracts. Grey correlation analysis was applied to establish the spectral effect relationship and give the anticoagulant potency of different saponins. Network pharmacology and molecular docking were adopted to clarify and verify the possible mechanisms of anticoagulant action. Results The results showed that the blood physiological regulation activities of Panax medicinal plants were different according to the dosage. With the increase of dosage, the contribution of some components (NG-R2, NG-Fc/G-Ra1/G-Ra2, G-Rc,G-Rk3, and G-Rh4) to the whole anticoagulant activity of the drug were increased, while the effect of CS-IVa was just decreased with the increase of dosage. The anticoagulant effect of G-Rg3 is mainly related to the targets F2, AR, RHO, ACR, MB, GZMB, B2M, CA2, CAT, and PAPOLA. Conclusion This study determined the effective substance of anti-coagulation of ginseng genus medicines and the regulation of different anticoagulant effects of TCM by changing various influencing conditions, including processing method, extraction method, and dose. It also provided an effective strategy for effective substances identification of multicomponent, multifunction, and multipurpose herbal medicine.