Abstract:
Strobilanthes sarcorrhiza is one of the most special Chinese herbal medicines in the agricultural products. It is distributed mainly in Wenzhou City (Yongjia district) and Taizhou City (Huangyan district) of Zhejiang Province, China. But it still remains unclear on its nutritional and functional components, together with its processing potential. Taking
Strobilanthes sarcorrhiza from Yongjia County and Huangyan district as a research object, this study aims to conduct a comprehensive assessment of its quality. A series of analyses was also performed on the metabolomics, nutritional component, nutritional evaluation, and antioxidant activity. The results showed that: 1) The widely-targeted metabolomics was identified a total of 10 categories (450 metabolites), of which the terpenes (54 metabolites) and phenylpropanoids (50 metabolites) were accounted for the highest proportion, followed by organic acids (38 metabolites), flavonoids (34 metabolites), phenols (30 metabolites), amino acids (32 metabolites), saccharides and their derivatives (18 metabolites), nucleosides (11 metabolites), as well as alkaloids (10 metabolites). The principal component analysis revealed that the samples from the two regions were significantly separated to screen a total of 182 differential metabolites (VIP>1,
P<0.05), including 115 up- and 67 down-regulated metabolites. Among them, most terpenoids, phenols, amino acids, and their derivatives in
Strobilanthes sarcorrhiza were up-regulated in the Huangyan region. While most nucleosides, alkaloids and saccharides, and their derivatives were down-regulated. The Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes enrichment analysis indicated that the differential metabolites were mainly involved in the metabolic pathways, such as the biosynthesis of phenylpropanoids, aminobenzoate degradation, lysine degradation, pantothenate and CoA biosynthesis, and biosynthesis of cofactors. 2) The nutritional component analysis displayed that the starch (10.31 g/100 g) and reducing sugar (4.45 g/100 g) in Yongjia samples were higher than those in the Huangyan ones (
P<0.05). While saponin (12.16 g/100 g) and total phenol (0.88 g/100 g) in Huangyan samples were higher than those in Yongjia ones (
P<0.05). Therefore, Huangyan samples were enriched in the natural antioxidant component, whereas the Yongjia samples demonstrated greater application potential in food processing and energy metabolism. 3) The mineral nutritional evaluation indicated that Ca exhibited the highest content in
Strobilanthes sarcorrhiza, reaching 1,062 to 1,340 mg/100 g. The elements with the highest nutritional value were Ca, Fe, and Mn. The index of the nutritional quality (INQ) was all greater than 1, except for Na and Se. In addition, the Pb contents in the samples from both regions were 0.049 and 0.148 mg/100g, respectively, which were well below the maximum limit that is released in China's National Food Safety Standard (GB 2762-2017) for the specific edible plant categories. There was a low enrichment of heavy metals in
Strobilanthes sarcorrhiza. 4) The antioxidant activity analysis found that the
Strobilanthes sarcorrhiza extracts shared the antioxidant capacity. The scavenging activity increased with the increase in the concentration of the extracts. Notably, the DPPH (IC
50=3.70 mg/mL) and ABTS (IC
50=7.39 mg/mL) scavenging activity in the Huangyan samples was outstandingly stronger than that in the Yongjia ones. To sum up, the nutritional component analysis, nutritional evaluation, and metabolomics analysis can be expected to effectively analyze the features of plants. Thus, the finding can also provide a data reference for the subsequent processing, according to the features of the raw materials.