1H NMR and GC–MS based metabolomics reveal nano-Cu altered cucumber (Cucumis sativus) fruit nutritional supply

Abstract

It is imperative to study the interaction of nanoparticles residuals with crop plants in agricultural soils, due to the increased application of nanotechnology in agriculture. So far, a few studies have focused on the impact of nanoparticles on fruit quality and nutritional supply. In this work, a thorough and comprehensive analysis of metabolite changes of cucumber fruits from plants under nano-Cu stress was possible through the use of both 1H NMR and GC–MS. The results of supervised partial least-squares discriminant analysis from both platforms showed that cucumber fruit extracts samples were clearly grouped based on the nano-Cu level in soil. This indicates that the fruit metabolite profile was influenced by exposure to nano-Cu. GC–MS data showed concentrations of some sugars, organic acids, amino acids, and fatty acids were increased or decreased by nano-Cu. Several metabolites, such as methylnicotinamide (MNA), trigonelline, imidazole, quinolinate were only detected and quantified by 1H NMR. Our results showed that combining the two platforms provided a comprehensive understanding about the metabolites (nutrient supply) changes in cucumber fruits impacted by exposure to nano-Cu.