Fourteen different Pleurotus ostreatus cultivars (Po_1-Po_14) were tested for free amino acid content (fAA), total polyphenol content (TPC), and antioxidant capacity (Ferric Reducing Ability of Plasma-FRAP) to select the cultivars with the most favorable traits. Automatic amino acid analyzer (fAA) and spectrophotometric assay (TPC, FRAP) results as well as Fourier-transform near infrared (FT-NIR) spectra were evaluated with different chemometric methods (Kruskal-Wallis test, Principal Component Analysis-PCA, Linear Discriminant Analysis-LDA). Based on total free amino acid concentrations and FRAP values, the Po_2 cultivar was found to be the most favorable. Types Po_3, Po_8, Po_10 and Po_12 were separated using PCA. Based on the spectral profile, they may contain polyphenols and reducing compounds of different qualities. LDA classification that was based on the concentrations of all free amino acids, cysteine, and proline of the cultivars was performed with an accuracy of over 90%. LDA classification that was based on the TPC and FRAP values was performed with an accuracy of over 83%.
Keywords: FRAP; FT-NIR; LDA; PCA; Pleurotus ostreatus; TPC; amino acid content; chemometrics; qualification; spectra profiling.