Pharmacokinetics-derived absorbed components responsible for Guizhi-Fuling capsule target PI3K/Akt-Erk to exert an anti-dysmenorrhea effect

Guizhi-Fuling capsule (GZFL), a well-known herbal remedy, has been widely used to treat primary dysmenorrhea (PD). Hence, systematic identifying multiple active ingredients and the involved mechanism is essential and urgently needed for GZFL.This study was planned to assess the pharmacokinetics of GZFL in rats, and identify whether these GZFL-derived absorbed components (ACs) contribute to the efficacy of source herbs and relevant mechanism.The in vivo pharmacokinetic profile of 11 phytochemicals and 13 metabolites in healthy and PD rats were evaluated using liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Whereafter, the introduced contribution strategy assessed ACs' effect (doses = their contents in GZFL) in PD rats with the mechanism.The pharmacokinetic profiles of prototypes and metabolites differed in healthy and PD rats. As a main proxy of GZFL, 11ACs exerted an anti-PD effect (improvement of indexes for writhing latency, writhing time, PGF2α/PGE2, TXB2/6-keto-PGF1α and β-EP) by regulating PI3K-Akt/ERK pathway.As a paradigmatic example, 11ACs contributed an average of 113.55% to GZFL in terms of anti-PD efficacy, providing an approach to rapidly, accurately and consistently identify the bioactive components and their pathway from herbs.