Anoectochilus roxburghii is a traditional Chinese medicine and natural health products. In the modern cultivation system, A. roxburghii is micropropagated in tissue culture, and the plants are transferred to soil cultivation for months. However, it remains unclear about the necessity of soil cultivation for the accumulation of health beneficial compounds. In this paper, we performed nontargeted metabolomic analysis using GC-TOF-MS and UPLC-Q-TOF-MS, on A. roxburghii plants at tissue culture stage or after 3 months of soil cultivation. The results showed that the primary metabolites such as alcohols and organic acids are abundant in the tissue culture plants. In contrast, polysaccharide, nucleoside, esters and secondary metabolites such as flavonoids, terpenoids were significantly accumulated in cultivated seedlings. Flavonoids and polysaccharides are considered as the principle effective components in A. roxburghii. Soil cultivation period is therefore essential for the accumulation of these metabolites.
Keywords: Anoectochilus roxburghii; GC-TOF-MS; UPLC-Q-TOF-MS; metabolomics; soil cultivation; tissue culture.
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