Metabolomics Study of Different Germplasm Resources for Three Species Using UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS.

Rhizomes of the species are well-known in traditional Chinese medicine. The 2020 edition of includes three different species that possess different pharmacological effects. Due to the lack of standardized discriminant compounds there has often been inadvertently incorrect prescriptions given for these medicines, resulting in serious consequences. Therefore, it is critical to accurately distinguish these herbal species. For this study, UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS based metabolomics was employed for the first time to discriminate between three species. Partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) models were utilized to select the potential candidate discriminant compounds, after which MS/MS fragmentation patterns were used to identify them. Meanwhile, metabolic correlations were identified using the R language package corrplot, and the distribution of various metabolites was analyzed by box plot and the Z-score graph. As a result, we found that adenosine, sucrose, and pyroglutamic acid were suitable for the identification of different species. In conclusion, this study articulates how various herbal species might be more accurately and efficiently distinguished.