Nutritional ingredients and functional components of cultivated and wild-simulated Astragali radix using widely targeted metabolomics

Abstract

Commercial Astragali radix (AR) is mainly derived from cultivated Astragali radix (CAR) and wild-simulated Astragali radix (WAR). WAR has a higher recognition than CAR because it contains rich functional components. AR is an important medicinal and food-homologous substance; however, there is a lack of comprehensive evaluation of different planting patterns and their influence on AR nutritional content and medicinal components. Here, we investigated the total contents of amino acid (TAA), flavonoid (TFC), and phenolic acid (TPC) components in AR under different planting patterns and systematically compared them. CAR had high TAA content, whereas WAR had significant TFC and TPC amounts. A total of 674 metabolites, 330 primary and 344 secondary metabolites were identified. The nutritional differences between CAR and WAR can be explained by the accumulation of amino acids and their derivatives, lipids, saccharides and alcohols. Discrepancies in flavonoid, phenolic acid, and terpenoid contents produced differences in medicinal quality. Additionally, 110 key differential metabolites were screened, 88 of which were potential biomarkers, distinguishing between CAR and WAR. This study comprehensively characterized the metabolic products of AR, emphasizing their nutritional and medicinal value, and provided new insights on the differences in nutritional and health promotion ability between CAR and WAR.