Metabolomics and Dna-Based Authentication of Two Traditional Asian Medicinal and Aromatic Species of Salvia Subg. Perovskia Publisher Pubmed



Bielecka M¹ ; Pencakowski B¹ ; Stafiniak M¹ ; Jakubowski K³ ; Rahimmalek M^{3, 4} ; Gharibi S⁵ ; Matkowski A^{2, 3} ; Slusarczyk S² Show Affiliations
Source: Cells Published:2021

Abstract

Subgenus Perovskia of the extended genus of Salvia comprises several Central Asian medicinal and aromatic species, of which S. yangii and S. abrotanoides are the most widespread. These plants are cultivated in Europe as robust ornamentals, and several cultivars are available. However, their medicinal potential remains underutilized because of limited information about their phytochemical and genetic diversity. Thus, we combined an ultra-high performance liquid chromatography quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QTOF-MS) based metabolomics with DNA barcoding approach based on trnH-psbA and ITS2 barcodes to clarify the relationships between these two taxa. Metabolomic analysis demonstrated that aerial parts are more similar than roots and none of the major compounds stand out as distinct. Sugiol in S. yangii leaves and carnosic acid quinone in S. abrotanoides were mostly responsible for their chemical differentiation, whereas in roots the distinction was supported by the presence of five norditerpenoids in S. yangii and two flavonoids and one norditerpenoid in S. abrotanoides. To verify the metabolomics-based differentiation, we performed DNA authentication that revealed S. yangii and S. abrotanoides to be very closely related but separate species. We demonstrated that DNA barcoding coupled with parallel LC-MS profiling constitutes a powerful tool in identification of taxonomically close Salvia species. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.