Analysis of Anthocyanin Metabolites in Strawberries Using UPLC-ESI-MS/MS

Abstract

Strawberry is a delicious and nutritious berry with great demand, which is rich in active substances, such as ascorbic acid, polyphenols, and anthocyanins. Anthocyanins are a kind of water-soluble flavonoids with high nutritional values and officinal values, but in strawberries,its systematic profile is known a little. In the study, the anthocyanin in 5 strawberry varieties, including ‘Hongxing’ (‘HX’), ‘Shimei11’ (‘SM11’), ‘Shimei12’ (‘SM12’), ‘Darselect’ (‘DS’), and ‘Sweet charlie’ (‘SC’), were analyzed using UPLC-ESI-MS/MS-based widely targeted metabolomes. The data showed that the total anthocyanin content of ‘HX’ was higher than other strawberrys. In addition, there were 27 anthocyanin metabolites to detect, which contain 18 differential, two of which were common. And ‘HX’ could be clearly differentiated from others by clustering analysis and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Moreover, five up-regulated metabolites were identified as displaying important biological activities in HX, which were namely Cyanidin 3,5-O-diglucoside (Cyanin), Pelargonin, Cyanidin 3-O-glucoside (Kuromanin), Pelargonidin, and Cyanidin 3-O-rutinoside (Keracyanin). This work was helpful to a deeper understanding of different anthocyanin metabolites in HX and other four strawberries,which could be utilized for reference.