Identification of Active Compounds of Pueraria Lobata and their Mechanisms of Action by LC-MS/MS and Network Pharmacology

Recent studies have shown that osteoporosis has become a global public health problem and PL is a potential medicine for treatment of osteoporosis. This study describes a rapid method of detecting and identifying the constituents and systematic mechanism of PL based on LC–MS and network pharmacology. We explored the compounds and possible pathways of PL affecting the pathological process of osteoporosis base on UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap MS metabolomics. A total of 48 compounds including 38 isoflavones, 6 puerosides and 4 others were identified by UHPLC-Q Exactive-Orbitrap MS. The network pharmacological analysis revealed that 28 compounds regulated 19 pathways through 27 targets, including estrogen signaling pathway and NF-kappa B signaling pathway, etc. PL may attenuate osteoporosis by regulating estrogen signaling pathway, NF-kappa B signaling pathway, MAPK signaling pathway and PI3K-Akt signaling pathwayand be a potential source of functional food for prevention of osteoporosis.