Objective: To provide reference for promoting the treatment of adenoid hypertrophy with traditional Chinese medicine. Methods: Literature with traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of adenoid hypertrophy were retrieved from CNKI

Wanfang and VIP databases from 2008 to 2022. Literature were screened and traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions were extracted. The drug frequency

four properties and five flavors and association rules of the prescriptions were analyzed to obtain the core drug pairs. Chemical components and targets of core drug pairs were obtained through traditional Chinese medicine systems pharmacology database and analysis platform (TCMSP)

and disease targets were obtained through GeneCards

OMIM and DisGeNET databases. Network diagram of core drug pairs-active components-disease-targets was constructed and topological analysis was performed based on Cytoscape 3.9.1 software. Venny platform was used to obtain the intersection targets of diseases and drugs

STRING and DAVID6.8 databases were used for mechanism analysis. Results: Totally 100 prescriptions and 176 drugs were screened

among which 26 drugs were used ≥15 times. According to the correlation rule

the confidence of “flos magnoliae-fructus xanthii-selfheal” was the highest. The network pharmacological analysis of “flos magnoliae-fructus xanthii-selfheal” was conducted

and the main active components were quercetin

luteolin

kaempferol

stigmasterol and β-sitosterol. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis results showed that the key targets were interleukin (IL)-6

tumor necrosis factor (TNF)

AKT1

vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA)

and CASP3. A total of 925 gene ontology (GO) enrichment results were obtained. Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) enrichment pathway mainly included advanced glycosylation end products-receptors of advanced glycosylation end products (AGE-RAGE) signaling pathway

IL-17 signaling pathway

PI3K-Akt signaling pathway

TNF signaling pathway and other signaling pathways. Conclusion: The main core drug pair of traditional Chinese medicine in the treatment of adenoid hypertrophy is “flos magnoliae-fructus xanthii-selfheal”

which is a multi-component

multi-target

multi-pathway treatment for adenoid hypertrophy. Its mechanism may be to regulate PI3K-Akt signaling pathway

IL-17 signaling pathway

TNF signaling pathway

AGE-RAGE signaling pathway and other biological signaling pathways to inhibit the release of inflammatory factors and regulate cell proliferation and apoptosis.