A strategy to explore the quality markers of Ziziphi Spinosae semen by combining metabolic in vivo study with network pharmacology.

Ziziphi Spinosae semen (ZSS), the dried and ripe seed of Ziziphus jujube Mill. var. spinosa (Bunge) Hu ex H. F. Chou, has been used as a sedative in China and other Asian countries for over a millennium. However, its quality markers (Q-markers) are not completely clear. In this study, Q-markers selected by a metabolic in vivo study combined with network pharmacology are proposed for ZSS quality control. An UHPLC (ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography)-Q-Orbitrap-MS method was developed to identify or tentatively assign 48 components including 21 flavonoid C-glycosides, 2 flavonoid O-glycosides, 11 dammarane triterpenoid saponins, 13 alkaloids, and 1 other, using a diagnostic product ion filtering strategy in ZSS. Subsequently, 147 metabolites detected from serum, urine, bile, and feces samples of para-chlorophenylalanine-induced insomnia rats treated with ZSS aqueous extracts could be linked to their respective parent compounds, including 27 prototypes. Meanwhile, three metabolic networks of flavonoids, saponins, and alkaloids are preliminarily established and potential metabolic pathways are investigated under the insomnia condition. Finally, 12 key bioactive components against insomnia including magnoflorine, caaverine, coclaurine, norisocorydine, genkwanin, juzinrine, apigenin, jujubogenin, kaempferol-3-O-rutinoside, jujuboside A, jujuboside B, and spinosin with the highest degree values in component-target-pathways network were selected as Q-markers for the quality control of ZSS.