Abstract
Plants are an important and inexhaustible source of bioactive molecules in food, medicine, agriculture, and industry. In this study, we performed systematic liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS)-based metabolic profiling coupled with antioxidant assays for indigenous plant family extracts. Partial least-squares discriminant analysis of LC-MS datasets for the extracts of 34 plant species belonging to the families Aceraceae, Asteraceae, and Rosaceae showed that these species were clustered according to their respective phylogenies. In particular, seven Aceraceae species were clearly demarcated with higher average antioxidant activities, rationalizing their application for bioconversion studies. On the basis of further evaluation of the interspecies variability of metabolic profiles and antioxidant activities among Aceraceae family plants, we found that Acer tataricum (TA) extracts were clearly distinguished from those of other species, with a higher relative abundance of tannin derivatives. Further, we detected a strong positive correlation between most tannin derivatives and the observed higher antioxidant activities. Following Aspergillus oryzae-mediated fermentative bioconversion of Acer plant extracts, we observed a time-correlated (0–8 days) linear increase in antioxidant phenotypes for all species, with TA having the highest activity. Temporal analysis of the MS data revealed tannin bioconversion mechanisms with a relatively higher abundance of gallic acid (m/z 169) accumulated at the end of 8 days, particularly in TA. Similarly, quercetin precursor (glycoside) metabolites were also transformed to quercetin aglycones (m/z 301) in most Acer plant extracts. The present study underscores the efficacy of fermentative bioconversion strategies aimed at enhancing the quality and availability of bioactive metabolites from plant extracts.
Highlights
Bioconversion of renewable plant biomass with the aim of tapping their high-end valueadded pool of molecules for use as bioactives and food additives and inclusion in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals has attracted considerable attention in recent years
Metabolite profiling and antioxidant activity screening for three plant families In order to select the plant material extracts for bioconversion, we initially performed metabolite profiling coupled with multivariate statistical analysis for plants in three abundant and commercially important plant families in Korea (Aceraceae, Asteraceae, and Rosaceae)
The partial least-square discrimination analysis (PLS-DA) score plot presented in Fig 1A shows that the 34 native Korean plant species were clustered depending on their phylogeny
Summary
Bioconversion of renewable plant biomass with the aim of tapping their high-end valueadded pool of molecules for use as bioactives and food additives and inclusion in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals has attracted considerable attention in recent years. This myriad of valuable plant-derived molecules includes antibiotics, alkaloids, antimicrobials, food-grade pigments, and phenolics [1]. Given that plant biomass is a potentially inexhaustible source of valuable products, the enhanced production and bioconversion of natural products, e.g., bioactive secondary metabolites, using microbial fermentation have gained widespread interest [4, 5]
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