Comparative Analysis of the Nutritional Quality of Zizania latifolia Cultivars Harvested in Different Growing Seasons

Abstract

Zizania latifolia (Z. latifolia) is a popular aquatic vegetable with various nutrients in south China, but little is known about its cultivars and growing seasons in terms of the nutritional components. This work aims to characterize the nutrients of five Z. latifolia cultivars in different growing seasons. The results showed that Z. latifolia samples differed in terms of chemical parameters, which were significantly affected by variety, growing season, and their interaction. Zhejiao No. 8, harvested in the autumn, stood out with the highest levels of vitamin C. Tangxiajiao and Zhejiao No. 1 contained the highest values of total soluble solids, reducing sugar, soluble proteins, and amino acids. Significant differences were observed between the autumn Z. latifolia and spring samples; the former were of higher quality than the latter based on hierarchical clustering analysis and principal component analysis. Moreover, total amino acids (TAA) and glutamic acid (GLU) were selected as the key indicators for Z. latifolia comprehensive quality by multiple linear regression analysis. This study provides essential information on Z. latifolia quality characteristics corresponding to cultivars and growing seasons, which lays the foundation for promoting the quality improvement of Z. latifolia scientifically.

Effects of Particle Size Distribution on the Physicochemical, Functional, and Structural Properties of Alfalfa Leaf Powder

“…The results of the PCA are shown in Tables 4 and 5 and Figure 10. Based on the criterion of the dimensionality reduction analysis where the cumulative contribution rate exceeded 85% and the eigenvalue was larger than 1, the principal component was chosen [39]. As shown in Table 4, the contribution rate of PC 1 was 69.79%, the contribution rate of PC 2 was 25.90%, and the cumulative contribution rate of the first two principal components was 95.69%, which surpassed 85%.…”

“…Thus, PC 1 and PC 2 were extracted to represent most of the information on the properties of alfalfa leaf. In the component matrix, the absolute value of the variable reflects the contribution of each indicator to the principal component [39]. As shown in Table 5, the D 10 , D 50 , D 90 , VAPS, compressibility, solubility, L*, ACE inhibitory activity, tyrosinase inhibitory activity, and crystal index mainly reflect PC1.…”