Asian Journal
Of Traditional Medicines

Abstract: Many plant species of the family Simaroubaceae are traditional Chinese medicine, and three significant genera of the family Simaroubaceae are Picrasma quassioides, Brucea javanica, and Ailanthus altissima. Besides, they are all collected by Chinese pharmacopoeia. The significant quassinoids in these plants have been speculated to be anti-cancer agents and have been demonstrated to be effective by abundant researches. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms of herbs remain unclear. In this study, polytype models by integrating molecular docking and network pharmacology were employed and the relation among the small-molecule compounds of quassinoids, target proteins, biological pathways and several cancers was analyzed. The potential active quassinoids in plants of the family Simaroubaceae, the potential target proteins and the key pathways were predicted by network pharmacology models. These attempts may offer several new insights to understand the pharmacological properties of Simaroubaceae plants and provide crucial material for their further development and research.

Key words: quassinoid, Simaroubaceae, network pharmacology, anticancer activity