Phytochemical and Network Pharmacology Based Evaluation of Antiepileptic Potential of Identified Metabolites in Argimone mexicana

Background: Quality-based assessment of herbal drugs or products is being more concerning for their quality, safety and regulatory purpose. A. mexicana is a traditional herbal medicine that has a long history in the treatment of arthritis, anti-fungal anti-cancer and brain disorders. Aim: Due to lack of scientific evidence based on phytopharmacology, the study is aimed for phytochemical and antiepileptic evaluation of identified metabolites in A. mexicana. Materials and Methods: Phytochemical identification was done using MS, FTIR and 1H-NMR and quantitated using HPTLC densitometric analysis. Further, ADME and network pharmacology studies were performed to evaluate biological response of identified metabolites. Results: The resulted outcomes of the spectral analysis suggest isolated compounds as ferulic acid, caffeic acid, berberine and angoline. In HPTLC quantitative analysis, the content of ferulic acid, caffeic acid, berberine and angoline was found as 3.475 ± 0.028, 1.036 ± 0.013, 0.714 ± 0.014 and 0.738 ± 0.081 μg/mg of A. mexicana extract. In ADME analysis, berberine and angoline showed good bioavailable response while in network pharmacology analysis, except angoline, all the metabolites significantly interacted with several genes (SOD1, NOS, MAPK3, UGT1As, G6PD, ACOT2, BAAT etc) associated with brain ischemia, oxidative and inflammatory stress or the genes response for elimination of toxins from the body. Conclusion: Hence, the study enlightens that A. mexicana possess several major and minor metabolites and which can be the key parameter for further quality and regulatory based assessment of A. Mexicana and biological role against oxidative and inflammatory stress induced epileptic seizure.