Abstract
The seed pericarp of Chenopodium quinoa Willd. (quinoa) contains a mixture of triterpenoid saponins conferring undesired organoleptic properties. In this study, we evaluated saponin content and their corresponding sapogenins in 114 different quinoa accessions. Relative saponin content ranged from 0.22 to 15.04 mg/g of seed dry weight among the genotypes studied and the genotype effect was significant (p < 0.001). About 75% of the genotypes could be classified as low-saponin content lines which is promising in view of ongoing plant breeding efforts. In addition to the quantitative determination of saponins, metabolic profiling was performed by LC-FTICR-MS and LC-MS/MS. We obtained highly accurate mass estimation from ion spectra allowing the identification of twelve saponins of the oleanane type. These differ in their aglycons and in the number and type of glycoside units. Interestingly, we identified a saponin compound that, to our knowledge, had not been reported previously. Our study highlights that there is considerable variability concerning saponin content in quinoa, which contributes to the valorization of genetic resources towards the identification of genotypes that could be utilized in current and future quinoa breeding programs.
Highlights
Saponins, glycosylated secondary metabolites, are present in a wide range of plant species [1]
Saponin content in C. quinoa seeds was evaluated in terms of their sapogenins derived from hydrolysis of seed samples
The gas chromatography (GC)-MS profiling addressed the high degree of significant variance in relative saponin content, which ranges from 0.22 mg/g to 15.04 mg/g among the 114 different C. quinoa genotypes
Summary
Saponins, glycosylated secondary metabolites, are present in a wide range of plant species [1] They consist of a triterpenoid (C30) or steroid (C27) aglycon (sapogenin) attached to sugar units varying by type, number, and position [2]. Saponins have been widely studied for their potential applications in agriculture due to their antifungal activity and in the food industry for use as preservatives, food additives, and flavor modifying properties [3,4]. Saponins can be removed either by simple washing due to their amphiphilic nature or by a dehullingabrasion process [23,28,29,30] Because these processes consume water and require the use of dedicated machinery, the development of low saponin C. quinoa varieties is an important aim of current plant breeding programs. Recently, sophisticated technologies such as low-pressure lipid chromatography (LPLC), high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC), gas chromatography (GC), UV–vis spectroscopy, and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) have emerged as appropriate methods for saponin separation and detection [20,23,24,26,36,37,38]
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