Screening natural raw materials and product development for improving insomnia based on network pharmacology and data mining.

Insomnia, as one of the most common sleep problems, seriously affects the normal life and work of individuals. Aromatherapy is regarded as a promising alternative medicine for improving sleep quality. Based on network pharmacology and data mining, this study screened natural raw materials for improving insomnia. Then, we developed an aromatherapy product informed by the screening results and investigated its mechanism for improving insomnia through network pharmacology. Five core insomnia targets were identified through literature. 1600 candidate compounds and 1757 candidate herbs related to the target were matched using HERB and TCMSP databases. By comparing with the Catalogue of Used Cosmetic Materials (2021 edition), 597 kinds of usable candidate materials were selected, including 85 raw materials related to target MTNR1A, 86 raw materials related to target MTNR1B, 120 raw materials related to target HTR1A, 7 raw materials related to target GABRB2, and 582 raw materials related to target GABRA1. Then based on the screening results, we selected sandalwood, lime, angelica sinensis, yilan, sage and lavender to design Pinghe Sleep Aromatherapy Product to improve insomnia. Network pharmacological analysis revealed that the main ingredients of the Pinghe Sleep Aromatherapy Product are beta-sitosterol, stigmasterol, isorhamnetin, luteolin, tanshinone IIA, D-limonene, and linalool. It exerts improvement effects by influencing targets such as IL6, TNF, AKT1, CASP3, TP53, and VEGFA, regulating signaling pathways such as AGE-RAGE, neuroactive ligand-receptor interactions, the HIF-1 signaling pathway, and the calcium signaling pathway. This study provides an idea of raw material screening and product development, which can save product development cost and shorten product development cycle by using network pharmacology and data mining.