Abstract
Background: To investigate the endogenous metabolites in Polygonatum odoratum (Mill.) Druce from different geographical origins within Guizhou Province, the metabolic profiles of samples from 12 regions were analyzed using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS). Methods: Multivariate statistical methods including principal component analysis (PCA), hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA), and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis were employed to explore the influence of geographical origin on the metabolic composition of P. odoratum. Results: PCA revealed significant differences among samples from different regions which showed clear clustering patterns in our study, indicating that the growing environment considerably affects the metabolite profiles of P. odoratum. A total of 6055 potential metabolites were detected in both positive and negative ion modes. Significantly differential metabolites were then screened based on a fold change (FC) ≥ 2 or ≤0.5 and p < 0.05. Comparative analysis was conducted on representative samples from three clustered regions: As, ZYMT, and XY-1. The results indicated that alcohols, nucleotides and their derivatives were the major differential metabolites between AS and ZYMT, and alcohols were the key differential metabolites between AS and XY-1, while ketones and sphingolipids were the most significant differential metabolites between ZYMT and XY-1. KEGG enrichment analysis revealed that the pathways of nucleotide metabolism, amino acid biosynthesis, and aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis were notably disturbed, suggesting their crucial roles in the synthesis of differential metabolites in P. odoratum. Conclusions: These findings demonstrated the notable differences in the metabolite composition of P. odoratum from different regions of Guizhou province.