Analysis of Differentiated Chemical Components between Zijuan Purple Tea and Yunkang Green Tea by UHPLC-Orbitrap-MS/MS Combined with Chemometrics

Abstract

Zijuan tea (Camellia sinensis var. assamica cv. Zijuan) is a unique purple tea. Recently, purple tea has drawn much attention for its special flavor and health benefits. However, the characteristic compounds of purple tea compared with green tea have not been reported yet. The present study employed a non-targeted metabolomics approach based on ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC)-Orbitrap-tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) for comprehensive analysis of characteristic metabolites between Zijuan purple tea (ZJT) and Yunkang green tea (YKT). Partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) indicated that there are significant differences in chemical profiles between ZJT and YKT. A total of 66 major differential metabolites included catechins, proanthocyanins, flavonol and flavone glycosides, phenolic acids, amino acids and alkaloids were identified in ZJT. Among them, anthocyanins are the most characteristic metabolites. Nine glycosides of anthocyanins and six glycosides of proanthocyanins were found to be significantly higher in ZJT than that in YKT. Subsequently, pathway analysis revealed that ZJT might generate anthocyanins and proanthocyanins through the flavonol and flavone glycosides. Furthermore, quantitative analysis showed absolutely higher concentrations of total anthocyanins in ZJT, which correlated with the metabolomics results. This study presented the comprehensive chemical profiling and the characterized metabolites of ZJT. These results also provided chemical evidence for potential health functions of ZJT

An Evaluation of Traits, Nutritional, and Medicinal Component Quality of Polygonatum cyrtonema Hua and P. sibiricum Red.

“…However, there is no research on determining the nucleosides, nucleobases, and amino acids in P. cyrtonema and P. sibiricum recently. Comparing with various profiling techniques, Orbitrap is one of widely used mass spectrometry technique in metabolomics research, because it has the ability of a non-targeted search and fragmentation ( Li et al, 2021a ). In this study, UHPLC-Orbitrap-MS/MS was established for comparatively analyzing five types of Huangjing on amino acids, nucleosides, and nucleobases.…”

Widely Targeted Metabolomics Analysis Reveals the Differences of Nonvolatile Compounds in Oolong Tea in Different Production Areas

“…The screened differential compounds were mainly enriched in 67 metabolic pathways ( Table S4 ), of which the 10 metabolic pathways with the highest enrichment were respectively: flavonoid biosynthesis, purine metabolism, aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis, galactose metabolism, cysteine and methionine metabolism, amino sugar and nucleotide sugar metabolism, arginine, and proline metabolism, starch, and sucrose metabolism, alanine, aspartate and glutamate metabolism, and tyrosine metabolism ( Figure 3 d). Flavonoid biosynthesis mainly included the metabolism of flavonoids, flavonoid glycosides, catechins, and anthocyanins [ 27 ]. The products of purine metabolism also participated in the biosynthesis of alkaloids [ 28 ].…”

Phytochemical Screening, Antioxidant, and Enzyme Inhibitory Properties of Three Prangos Species (P. heyniae, P. meliocarpoides var. meliocarpoides, and P. uechtritzii) Depicted by Comprehensive LC-MS and Multivariate Data Analysis

“…Four different isomeric derivatives are present in P. heyniae. Two further peaks presenting similar fragmentation and showing the loss of two gallic acid moieties have also been detected and annotated as di-galloyl prodelphynidin dimers [ 40 , 41 , 42 ]. Epigallocatechin gallate and methyl ellagic acid were also detected and their presence was confirmed with an injection of authentic standards.…”