Background : Ribes fasciculatum var. chinense Maxim. has been traditionally used as febrifuge, diuretic and antidote against urushiol in Korea. This study described a metabolomics approach used to discriminate the genus Ribes from different sources.
Methods and Results : Four different types of Ribes from Korea were analyzed by ultra-high-resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC-HR-MS/MS) based metabolomics. Multivariate statistical method such as principal component analysis (PCA) were used to compare the derived patterns among the samples. The data set was subsequently applied to various metabolite selection methods for sophisticated classification with the optimal number of metabolites. The results showed variations in accuracy among the classification methods for the samples of different origins, especially for cultivation region.
Conclusion : This proposed analytical method coupled with multivariate analysis is fast, accurate, and reliable for discriminating the origin of the genus Ribes samples and is a potential tool to standardize quality control in the genus Ribes related products.