College of Ethnic Medicine, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, 611137, China.
Sichuan Industrial Institute of Antibiotics, Chengdu University, Chengdu, 610051, China.
Sci Rep. 2017 May 8;7(1):1585. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-01722-3.
Sea buckthorn (Hippophaë; Elaeagnaceae) berries are widely consumed in traditional folk medicines, nutraceuticals, and as a source of food. The growing demand of sea buckthorn berries and morphological similarity of Hippophaë species leads to confusions, which might cause misidentification of plants used in natural products. Detailed information and comparison of the complete set of metabolites of different Hippophaë species are critical for their objective identification and quality control. Herein, the variation among seven species and seven subspecies of Hippophaë was studied using proton nuclear magnetic resonance (H NMR) metabolomics combined with multivariate data analysis, and the important metabolites were quantified by quantitative H NMR (qNMR) method. The results showed that different Hippophaë species can be clearly discriminated and the important interspecific discriminators, including organic acids, L-quebrachitol, and carbohydrates were identified. Statistical differences were found among most of the Hippophaë species and subspecies at the content levels of the aforementioned interspecific discriminators via qNMR and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test. These findings demonstrated that H NMR-based metabolomics is an applicable and effective approach for simultaneous metabolic profiling, species differentiation and quality assessment.
沙棘（沙棘属；胡颓子科）浆果在传统民间药物、营养保健品和食品来源中被广泛食用。沙棘浆果的需求不断增长，加上沙棘属植物形态相似，导致混淆，这可能导致天然产物中使用的植物被错误识别。不同沙棘属物种的整套代谢物的详细信息和比较对于它们的客观鉴定和质量控制至关重要。在此，使用质子核磁共振（1H NMR）代谢组学结合多元数据分析研究了 7 种沙棘属物种和 7 个亚种的变异，并用定量 1H NMR（qNMR）方法对重要代谢物进行定量。结果表明，不同的沙棘属物种可以清晰地区分，包括有机酸、L-奎诺糖和碳水化合物在内的重要种间鉴别物被鉴定出来。通过 qNMR 和单因素方差分析（ANOVA）检验，发现大多数沙棘属物种和亚种之间在上述种间鉴别物的含量水平上存在统计学差异。这些发现表明，基于 1H NMR 的代谢组学是一种适用于同时代谢物分析、物种分化和质量评估的有效方法。
