Widely targeted metabolomics study of flower buds of Styphnolobium japonicum from different producing areas

Abstract The flower buds of Styphnolobium japonicum (FBSJ) , as a medicinal and food plant, has a wide range of application prospects and a variety of efficacy effects such as cooling blood and stopping bleeding, lowering blood sugar, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. To provide a reference basis for the identification, resource development and utilization of the FBSJ , we conducted a widely targeted metabolomics study of the FBSJ on four producing areas originated in China: from Shandong (SJsd), Anhui (SJah), Hebei (SJhb), and Henan (SJhn). UPLC-MS/MS based metabolomics analysis was selected to investigate the metabolites of FBSJ from different origins acquired on the MWDB database and the multi-reaction monitoring mode of triple quadruple quadruple rod mass spectrometry (TQRMS). In total, 1559 metabolites were identified, of which 294 and 193 were annotated as key active ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and active pharmaceutical ingredients against 11 diseases like cancer, diabetes, respectively. Among the 708 differential metabolites of FBSJ from four different groups of origin, 176 were annotated by KEGG and distributed in 87 metabolic pathways. The most significant of which was the isoflavonoid biosynthesis pathway, where the expression of the differentially significant metabolites of SJsd showed an up-regulation trend in comparison with that of the samples of the other groups. The study revealed a large number of metabolites and differential metabolites at the molecular level of FBSJ providing references for the analysis of the pharmacology approach of FBSJ from different origins, as well as useful information on the antidisease components of FBSJ for promoting human health and future development of new functional foods from FBSJ .