Xiaoerfupi alleviates the symptoms of functional dyspepsia by regulating the HTR3A and c-FOS

•Xiaoerfupi (XEFP) increased the gastric emptying and gastrin of the rats with functional dyspepsia (FD).•HTR3A and c-FOS were predicted to the key targets of XEFP by bioinformatics tools.•XEFP diminished the level of HTR3A and c-FOS in the stomach of rats with FD. To evaluate whether Xiaoerfupi (XEFP), a traditional Chinese medicine formula, can ameliorate functional dyspepsia (FD) through regulation of the HTR3A and c-FOS. The FD rat model was established through administration of iodoacetamide (IA) and interval fasting. XEFP group rats received XEFP for 3 weeks. Detection of gastric emptying and gastrin were performed to assess the interventional effect of XEFP. The constituents of XEFP were submitted to BATMAN-TCM, an online bioinformatics analysis tool, to predict the targets related to dyspepsia. Furthermore, the prediction was validated via Western blot assay. XEFP enhanced gastric emptying of rats (XEFP middle dose vs. FD model: 71.87 ± 15.21% vs. 30.07 ± 12.76%, P