Abstract
Pueraria lobata and its variety P. lobata var. thomsonii are both traditional Chinese medicines that have high nutritional and medical value; whereas another variety, P. lobata var. montana has low nutritional and medicinal value and can cause ecological disasters. The material basis of different nutritional and medicinal values, which are caused by metabolite differences among these varieties, remains to be further clarified. Here, we performed ultra performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry based widely targeted metabolome analysis on Pueraria lobata, P. lobata var. thomsonii, and P. lobata var. montana. Among them, a total of 614 metabolites were identified, and distinguished from each other using orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis. Our results suggest that the nutritional differences between P. lobata and its varieties can be explained by variations in the abundance of amino acids, nucleotides, saccharides, and lipids; differences in flavonoids, isoflavones, phenolic acids, organic acids, and coumarins contents caused the differences in the medicinal quality of P. lobata and its varieties. Additionally, the key metabolites responsible for the classification of the three Pueraria varieties were identified. This study provides new insights into the underlying metabolic causes of nutritional and medicinal variation in P. lobata and its varieties.
Highlights
The plants of the Leguminosae family are usually known as sources of starch, protein, and oil, with high economic value [1,2]
614 metabolites were identified, of which there were a large number of primary metabolites likely to contribute to the nutritional quality, as well as secondary metabolites likely to contribute to the medicinal quality (Figure 1B, Table S1)
The comparison among P. lobata, P. lobata var. thomsonii, and P. lobata var. montana showed that P. lobata has higher amounts of syringaresinol-4’-O-glucoside and disinapoyl glucoside; P. lobata var. thomsonii has higher amounts of glycycoumarin and 2hydroxyadenosine; and P. lobata var. montana has higher amounts of p-coumaroylputrescine, tricin-7-O-(6”-malonyl)-glucoside, and glycitin. These results suggest that the specific compounds found in a particular variety can be used to differentiate the Pueraria varieties
Summary
The plants of the Leguminosae family are usually known as sources of starch, protein, and oil, with high economic value [1,2]. Additional species within this family can serve as medicinal plants due to their bioactive ingredients [3,4,5]. Thomsonii are well-known edible and medicinal plants: P. lobata, i.e., kudzu, is an original variety that has a high isoflavone content with potential medicinal value and its starch has been used for curing and eating; compared with P. lobata, P. lobata var. According to the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, the dried roots of P. lobata and P. lobata var. P. lobata var. montana is another variety that is notorious as an invasive species after being introduced from Asia to the United States in the 1800s, originally for fodder and soil erosion control [11,12,13]
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