Background/Objectives: Epilepsy is a common chronic and recurrent neurological disorder that poses a threat to human health, and Acorus tatarinowii Schott (ATS), a traditional Chinese medicine, is used to treat it. This study aimed to determine its effects on plasma metabolites. Moreover, the possible mechanism of its intervention in epilepsy was preliminarily explored, combined with network pharmacology. Methods: An epileptic model of rats was established using pentylenetetrazol. The potential targets and pathways of ATS were predicted by network pharmacology. Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography–Quadrupole–Time of Flight Mass Spectrometrynce Liquid Chromatography–Quadrupole–Time of Flight Mass Spectrometryance Liquid Chromatography–Quadrupole–Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry and statistical analyses were used to profile plasma metabolites and identify ATS’s effects on epilepsy. Results: Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analysis revealed that ATS was involved in regulating multiple signaling pathways, mainly including the neuroactive ligand–receptor interaction and GABAerGamma-aminobutyrate transaminaseAminobutyrate Transaminaseapse signaling pathway. ATS treatment restored 19 metabolites in epiGamma-aminobutyrate transaminaseminobutyrate Transaminase rats, affecting lysine, histidine, and purine metabolism. GABA-T was found as a new key target for treating epilepsy with ATS. The IC₅₀ of ATS for inhibiting GABA-T activity was 57.9 μg/mL. Through metabolomic analysis, we detected changes in the levels of certain metabolites related to the GABAergic system. These metabolite changes can be correlated with the targets and pathways predicted by network pharmacology. One of the limitations of this study is that the correlation analysis between altered metabolites and seizure severity remains unfinished, which restricts a more in-depth exploration of the underlying biological mechanisms. In the future, our research will focus on conducting a more in-depth exploration of the correlation analysis between altered metabolites and seizure severity. Conclusions: These results improved our understanding of epilepsy and ATS treatment, potentially leading to better therapies. The identification of key metabolites and their associated pathways in this study offers potential novel therapeutic targets for epilepsy. By modulating these metabolites, future therapies could be designed to better manage the disorder. Moreover, the insights from network pharmacology can guide the development of more effective antiepileptic drugs, paving the way for improved clinical outcomes for patients.

Background: The ethnic drug Melastoma dodecandrum Lour. (MDL) is an important medicinal plant with potential antitumor properties, which have been proposed as promising anticancer agents, but the material basis for its therapeutic effect is still unclear and lacks in-depth research. Methods: In this study, the in vitro antitumor effects of different MDL extracts in different gynecological tumor cells were investigated by CCK-8 assay. The active components of 21 batches of MDL samples collected from different product areas and markets were determined and compared by the UPLC method. On this basis, the data was processed with the fingerprint similarity software, and the correlation between MDL fingerprint and antihuman cervical cancer activity was further analyzed by a multivariate statistical method. Results: Five kinds of MDL extracts, including the aqueous extract, the crude polysaccharide, the total polyphenol, the ethyl acetate fraction of the aqueous extract and 50% ethanol extract, had inhibitory effects on human cervical cancer HeLa and SiHa cells, among which total polyphenols of MDL showed stronger inhibition effect on human cervical cancer cells. In addition, the fingerprint of the total polyphenols of MDL had sixteen common peaks, and six common peaks were checked by using diode array and UV spectra, among which peak 1 (gallic acid), peak 4 (protocatechuic acid), peak 12 (unknown), and peak 15 (ellagic acid) were negatively correlated with the IC₅₀ value of the SiHa cells, and all variable importance values were greater than 1. Conclusion: Our data demonstrated that the main active components of MDL inhibiting human cervical cancer SiHa cells may be the synergistic effect of gallic acid, protocatechuic acid and ellagic acid, and the further spectrum-effect relationship analysis provides an important reference and basis for the quality control and the development of new anticervical cancer drug of MDL.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic disease that primarily manifests as symmetrical joint inflammation. Although Coix Seed Oil (CSO) has demonstrated anti-inflammatory effects in RA rat models, its systemic metabolic regulatory mechanisms remain unclear. Therefore, we aimed to investigate whether CSO ameliorates RA by modulating inflammation-associated metabolic pathways. Ultra-High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (UHPLC)-Q Exactive HF-X-MS-based metabolomics was used to profile metabolites in the synovial tissue and serum of complete Freund’s adjuvant (CFA)-induced RA rats. Systematically altered metabolites and their associated pathways were identified using multivariate analysis and pattern recognition. CSO treatment modulated 16 RA-related biomarkers in rat synovial tissues and 12 in the serum, which mainly affected amino acids, arachidonic acids, lipids, sphingolipids, and carnitines. These metabolites were associated with eight perturbed metabolic pathways that were predominantly involved in inflammatory responses. This study demonstrated that CSO has significant anti-RA effects on pharmacodynamic activity and metabolic network regulation. Additionally, inflammation-associated metabolic pathways are closely linked to the therapeutic efficacy of CSO in RA treatment.