Anti-depression molecular mechanism elucidation of the phytochemicals in edible flower of Hemerocallis citrina Baroni.

The edible flower of Hemerocallis citrina Baroni, commonly known as "Huang Huacai" in China, has anti-depressant effects. However, targets and molecular mechanisms of Hemerocallis citrina Baroni edible flowers (HEF) in depression treatment are still unclear. The potential anti-depression targets in HEF were identified by the intersecting results from typical drug databases. The network construction and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis were carried out for core targets. The molecular docking was conducted to predict the binding affinity between the active components and the central targets. The intersecting results indicated that there were 24 active components in HEF, with 449 anti-depression targets identified. After screening through degree centrality (DC), betweenness centrality (BC), and closeness centrality (CC), 166 core targets were determined. Tumor protein 53 (TP53) and interleukin 6 (IL-6) had the highest degree values. The results of GO enrichment analysis associated with anti-depression revealed that the biological processes were negative regulation of osteoclast differentiation and positive regulation of phosphorus metabolic process. KEGG enrichment analysis results revealed that pathways, such as the phosphatidylinositol 3‑kinase-protein kinase B (PI3K-Akt) signaling pathway and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway, were primarily associated with anti-depression. Molecular docking results indicated that the top 10 active ingredients in HEF could bind to the central targets. This study applied network pharmacology to unveil the potential anti-depressive mechanisms of HEF, providing a theoretical basis for further exploration of the effective components in H. citrina edible flower parts.