Investigating the Components Change of Steamed Corydalis yanhusuo via Mass Spectrometry Imaging, HS-GC-IMS, HPLC, and Network Pharmacology to Unveil Mechanism for Antichronic Atrophic Gastritis

Corydalis yanhusuo (YHS), a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), was commonly steamed before clinical usage for chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG). However, the reasonable steaming time had not occurred, and bioactive components of potential mechanisms of YHS for CAG were still unclear. Thus, the main purpose of this study is to investigate the necessity of steaming processing of YHS before using it in clinical via mass spectrometry imaging (MSI). During 1–10 min, changes in volatile components (VOCs) were measured by headspace gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry (HS-GC-IMS) and components of YHS were observed via high-performance liquid analysis (HPLC) in steaming processing to analyze the optimum steaming time. As well as investigating the mechanism of YHS for CAG by using network pharmacology. Overall, berberine, coptisine, columbamine, jatrorrhizine, and magnoflorine were markedly increased after steaming of YHS that the best time of 5–7 min. The VOCs were significantly changed, which mainly include 2-phenylacetaldehyde, 3-methylbutanal, and alpha-terpinolene. Furthermore, the compound-target-disease networks and the protein–protein interaction (PPI) analysis were performed, which involve PI3K-Akt and MAPK signaling pathway subsequently. Molecular docking and molecular dynamics were performed; the sanguinarine, berberine, and saulatine were key components to regulate HSP90AB1 and MAPK3 of YHS for CAG.