Clitoria ternatea L. (CT) is a perennial herbaceous plant with deep blue flowers native to tropical Asia. This work explores the endometrial pain (EP) regulation of CT flower through a multifaceted approach. Phytochemical screening unveiled the presence of alkaloids, steroids, flavonoids, glycosides, and tannins in CT flower methanolic extract (ME). In the in vitro membrane stabilizing experiment, the ME demonstrated 91.47% suppression of heat-induced hemolysis. Upon carrageenan-induced paw edema assay conducted on male Swiss albino mice at doses of 200 mg/kg and 400 mg/kg, 65.28% and 81.89% inhibition rates, respectively, of paw edema were reported. For the same doses, upon acetic acid-induced-writhing assay, 75.6% and 76.78% inhibition rates, respectively, were observed. For network pharmacology analyses, a protein–protein interaction network was constructed for 92 overlapping gene targets of CT and EP, followed by GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analyses. Network pharmacology-based investigation identified the anti-EP activity of CT to be mostly regulated by the proteins SRC homology, ESR1, and PI3KR1. Physicochemical, pharmacokinetic, and toxicity property predictions for the compounds with stable ligand–target interactions and a molecular dynamics simulation for the highest interacting complex further validated these findings. This work affirmed the anti-EP role of CT flower against EP, suggesting a probable molecular mechanism involved.

This study explored the potential role of Clitoria ternatea (CT) flower in ameliorating endometrial pain (EP) through network pharmacology and experimental approaches. Phytochemicals of the CT flower were listed from the literature and databases, and 18 suitable actives were screened for bioavailability and drug likeness parameters using SwissADME. For these actives, 279 exclusive target genes were predicted using SwissTargetPrediction. Additionally, 939 exclusive genes for EP were acquired from the DisGenet and GeneCards databases. Ninety-one overlapping gene targets of CT and EP were listed, for which a Protein–Protein Interaction (PPI) network was constructed using STRING. The top three node proteins (SRC, ESR1, and PI3KR1) in the PPI network were identified through Cytoscape (version 3.9.1). Molecular docking analysis of the eighteen actives with the three target proteins showed strong binding interactions of Flavylium, kaempherol, and quercetin with all the targets, suggesting their involvement in EP relief. In addition, Gene Ontology (GO) functions analysis revealed 320 biological processes, 59 cellular components, and 107 molecular functions were enriched with the target genes. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses identified 106 KEGG pathways, including steroid hormone biosynthesis, endocrine resistance, and endometrial cancer pathways, which were significantly enriched with the target genes. The anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects of CT’s methanolic extract (ME) were investigated through in vitro and in vivo assays. The ME exhibited 91.47% inhibition of heat-induced hemolysis compared to 92.87% by aspirin in the in vitro membrane stabilizing assay. The in vivo carrageenan-induced paw edema study revealed 65.28% inhibition of paw edema by ME compared to 80.38% inhibition by aceclofenac at the end of 4-h treatment. The in vivo acetic acid-induced writhing test demonstrated analgesia by ME by 75.6% inhibition of writhing compared to 77.49% by aceclofenac. These findings suggest CT flower could be a potential natural remedy for EP, warranting further investigation in future studies.

Vanda roxburghii (VR), a native medicinal plant in Bangladesh belonging to the Orchidaceae family, has been previously reported to be effective against Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This study aimed to investigate the potential mechanism of the phytoconstituents of VR against AD using network pharmacology and molecular docking analysis. The phytoconstituents of VR were listed from several databases and their blood–brain barrier (BBB) permeability was predicted using SwissADME. Targets of the BBB permeable actives were predicted using SwissTargetPrediction and Similarity Ensemble Approach databases. The putative genes responsible for AD were obtained from GeneCards and DisGenet databases. The common targets for both VR and AD were scrutinized for how the protein–protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed using STRING (version 12.0) and how the core protein targets were identified using Cytoscape (version 3.10.1). Gene ontology (GO) functions and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis were performed on the target genes using DAVID 6.8. Finally, the binding interactions between the phytochemicals and targets of AD were validated by molecular docking using PyRx (version 0.8). In total, 4 phytochemicals with 328 exclusive target genes were predicted to cross the BBB. Moreover, 1046 exclusive disease targets for AD were identified and 103 shared targets of VR and AD were acquired. From the PPI network, 5 targets with higher possibilities of therapeutic activity rates of VR on AD were obtained. Furthermore, 428 biological processes, 82 cellular components, and 98 molecular functions were enriched with GO functions, and 144 KEGG pathways (including Alzheimer’s disease, apoptosis, and endocrine resistance pathways) were found enriched for VR associated with anti-AD activities and were analyzed. Molecular docking analysis further verified the definite binding capacity of the four actives with the five target proteins (APP, JUN, ESR1, MAPK1, and MAPK3) involved in the significant KEGG pathways and GO functions. Our findings provide directions for further research on the phytochemicals of VR.