Discrimination of Geographical Origins of Wolfberry (Lycium barbarum L.) Fruits Using Stable Isotopes, Earth Elements, Free Amino Acids, and Saccharides

Abstract

To develop sophisticated approaches for distinguishing goji origins, 325 wolfberry fruit samples of a certain cultivar, plant age, drying method, and collection season were gathered from 26 producing areas across Northwest China in 2017 and 2018. We employed 49 indices, including stable isotopes, earth elements, soluble amino acids, and saccharides, to identify the regions of origin of these goji fruits. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and heritability analysis were used to assess the effects of the environment (producing areas), cultivar, plant age, drying process, and collection season. Samples from the same place can be classified and partially discriminated using principal component analysis (PCA). We were able to distinguish fruits produced in Zhongning County from those produced in the other five producing provinces using orthogonal projection to latent structure-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA). Calcium (Ca), manganese (Mn), ornithine (Orn), cystine (Cys-Cys), glutamate (Glu), phenylalanine (Phe), phosphoserine (Ps), serine (Ser), lysine (Lys), taurine (Tau), proline (Pro), and tyrosine (Tyr) indices were chosen using S-plots and heritability analysis, and their repeatability was established with samples collected in 2018. The indices selected in this study can distinguish goji berries produced in Zhongning County from fruits originating from five other Provinces with high repeatability, which was validated with various cultivars, drying methods, harvest seasons, and plant ages and with heritability analysis.

A comparative UHPLC-QTOF-MS/MS-based metabolomics approach reveals the metabolite profiling of wolfberry sourced from different geographical origins

“…Citrostadienol is a compound of sterols in LB which had antioxidant property ( Chen, et al, 2019 ), whereas lyciumionoside A is a terpenoid compound isolated from LB with anti-proliferative activity ( Wang, et al, 2016 ). Recently, a series of free amino acids were used as metabolites markers to differentiate the LB of Ningxia (Zhongning city) from those originating from other provinces, suggested that amino acids played a crucial role for discriminating origins of LB ( Gong, et al, 2022 ).…”

Comparison of physicochemical characteristics and biological activities of polysaccharides from Lycium barbarum L. at different tree ages

“…The Lycium barbarum fruits of different tree ages were collected by researcher Ying Wang from South China Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2017 and identi ed as the dried fruits of Lycium barbarum L. [12]. They were protected from light and moisture.…”

Quality control of Ganoderma lucidum by using C, H, O, and N stable isotopes and C and N contents for geographical traceability

“…However, they cannot effectively distinguish the geographic origin of TCM due to insufficient compound information. A chemometrics strategy that combines stable isotope ratios has emerged as a promising approach for distinguishing regional origins, particularly in rice, honey, milk, and wolfberry ( Magdas et al., 2008 ; Wang et al., 2020 ; Zhao et al., 2020 ; Gong et al., 2022 ). A stoichiometric strategy incorporating stable isotope ratios has also emerged as a highly promising approach for identifying the geographic origin of various products.…”