Background : Morus alba L. (M. alba L.), belonging to the family Moraceae, is widely distributed in East Asia. Fruits of M. alba L. have been used in traditional herbal medicine due to their antioxidant, anticancer, and antidiabetic properties. Phenolics play a main role for the growth, development, and pigment accumulation of plants. In this study, metabolic profiling of white (M. alba L. ‘Turkey’) and red (M. alba L. ‘Cheongil’) fruits during maturation.
Methods and Results : Phenolic compounds are secondary metabolites found in most of the higher plants. In the current study, the levels of phenolic compounds decreased during the maturation of Turkey and Cheongil fruits. Particularly, the Turkey fruits showed a dramatic decrease in the accumulation of phenolics. Principal component analysis (PCA) is one of powerful tools to identify overall patterns in the multivariat experimental data. The PCA score plots results revealed a clear classification between Cheongil and Turkey. Additioanlly, each group spread left to right in the X-axis by maturity. Two principal components of the score plot explained 71.1% of the total variance. Principal component 1 was associated with the separation of each group by maturity and isolation of Turkey 1.
Conclusion : In this study, we investigated primary metabolites and secondary metabolites (phenolics) in the white fruits (M. alba L. ‘Turkey’) and red fruits (M. alba L. ‘Cheongil’) in order to provide information on change in metabolite patterns during maturation.