Abstract: 【Objective】 The aim of this study was to investigate the mechanism of action of Sihuang antidiarrheal granules in the treatment of piglets diarrhea basing on network pharmacology and molecular docking techniques.【Method】 The active ingredients and corresponding targets of Scutellaria baicalensis,phellodendron,rhubarb,coptis,licorice and isatis root were collected in the TCMSP database.The targets related to piglets diarrhea were collected from the GeneCards database.The collected targets were standardized by the UniProt database.Shared targets were obtained through Venn online mapping site.Cytoscape 3.9.1 was used to create a drug target network diagram to obtain the main active ingredients.Protein-protein interactions (PPI),GO function and KEGG pathways analysis were performed on the shared targets to produce the PPI network diagram and obtain the core targets.3D structure files of the main active ingredients and targets were obtained from PubChem and PDB databases.Molecular docking was performed by Discovery Studio 2019 Client software.【Result】 The main active ingredients of Sihuang antidiarrheal granules were wogonin,β-sitosterol,acaciain,dehydrotanshinone ⅡA and (R)-canadine.The core targets are caspase 3(CASP3),tumor necrosis factor (TNF),interleukin-6 (IL6),vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA) and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3).The results of GO function analysis indicated that the biological functions of the main targets of action of Sihuang antidiarrheal granules were enriched to the entries of RNA polymerase Ⅱ promoter transcriptional regulation,apoptosis,angiogenesis,IL8 production,cytokine activity,and growth factor activity.The results of KEGG pathway analysis showed that the main targets of the action of Sihuang antidiarrheal granules were enriched in signal transduction,immune system,viral infection and other related molecular signaling pathways.The molecular docking results showed that wogonin with TNF,acaciain,dehydrotanshinone ⅡA and (R)-canadine with STAT3 showed good docking activity.【Conclusion】 Sihuang antidiarrheal granules might act on the targets of IL6,VEGFA,STAT3,TNF and CASP3 through the main active ingredients such as wogonin,β-sitosterol,acaciain,dehydrotanshinone ⅡA and (R)-canadine.In this way,it could have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects on piglet diarrhea through the pathways in cancer,lipid and atherosclerosis,and human cytomegalovirus infection,reflecting the multi-component,multi-target and multi-pathway characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine.

Key words: Sihuang antidiarrheal granules; network pharmacology; molecular docking; piglets diarrhea; mechanism