OBJECTIVE   To screen and identify the differential substance bases of Pinellia ternate and its different concoctions, conduct network pharmacological analysis on the common and differential substance bases, and explore the relationship between the substance bases and the changes in the efficacy of Pinellia ternate before and after concoction based on the UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS and multivariate statistical analysis.

  METHODS   The main substance bases of 42 batches of samples were examined by UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS, and the differential components were screened by orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) with VIP>1.5, P < 0.01 and FC>2 or < 0.5 as the screening criteria. The targets were further retrieved from the TCMIP database, and their protein interactions were analysed by GO enrichment and KEGG enrichment to visualise the "herbal-component-target-pathway" map.

  RESULTS   Compared with Pinellia ternate, Pinelliae Rhizoma Praeparatum has 14 different components, mainly glycyrrhetinic acid, glycyrrhizic acid and glycyrrhizin, etc. The components with reduced content were mainly amides. There were 18 differential constituents between raw and ginger, mainly nucleosides, flavonoids and amino acids. The content of guanosine, xanthine and tyrosine was reduced, while the content of adenosine monophosphate was increased. There were 18 differential components between raw and Pinelliae Rhizoma Praeparatum Cum Alumine, and the relative content of many components in Pinelliae Rhizoma Praeparatum Cum Alumine was reduced, such as sphingomyelin. Further, the TCMIP database was used to retrieve targets from the differential substance base, and protein interaction analysis was performed on the targets, resulting in 67 core targets for Pinellia ternate, 45 core targets for Pinelliae Rhizoma Praeparatum, and 38 core targets for Pinelliae Rhizoma Praeparatum cum Zingibere Et Alumine. Finally, the metabolic pathways were analyzed by GO enrichment and KEGG enrichment.

  CONCLUSION   The UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS method established in this experiment can better isolate and identify the chemical components in Pinellia ternate. Combined with multivariate statistical analysis and network pharmacology, the material basis and potential mechanism of action of Pinellia ternate and its concoction products can provide ideas for the study of the action targets and provide data support for the rational clinical application of Pinellia ternate and its concoction products.