Yuqiu Chen

Saposhnikovia divaricata , obtained from the desiccated roots of the plant Saposhnikovia divaricata (Turcz.) Schischk, is a medicinal material with its phloem known to be richer in chromones than its xylem. To understand this disparity, we compared the xylem and phloem using high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), transcriptomics, and nontargeted metabolomics. HPLC revealed that cimifugin was six times higher in the phloem. Conversely, prim‐O‐glucosylcimifugin and 4′‐O‐β‐D‐glucosyl‐5‐O‐methylvisamminol were 1.2 and 1.6 times more abundant in the xylem, respectively ( p < 0.01). Transcriptome sequencing identified nine differentially expressed genes, predominantly involved in phenylpropanoid biosynthesis (PAL, HCT, CCR, CSE, COMT, and CCoAOMT). Nontargeted metabolomics identified 229 differential metabolites, also largely enriched in phenylpropanoid biosynthesis. Integrated analysis revealed a strong positive correlation between the gene COMT and two metabolites (trans‐cinnamaldehyde and myricatomentoside I), identifying COMT as a key candidate gene governing quality. Our findings demonstrate that phenylpropanoid, flavonoid, and lignin biosynthesis pathways crucially impact secondary metabolite accumulation in Saposhnikovia divaricata , providing new insights for its exploitation.

A valid and encyclopedic evaluation method for assessing the quality of Saposhnikovia divaricata has been set up based on the analysis of a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) fingerprint combined with the cluster analysis (CA), principal component analysis (PCA), partial least square discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), and similarity analysis. 15 peaks of the common model were obtained and used for the similarity analysis, CA analysis, PCA analysis, and PLS-DA analysis. The fingerprint of S. divaricata was established, and 15 common peaks were calibrated. The four common peaks were identified as prim-o-glucosylcimifugin, 4-O-β-D-glucosyl-5-O-methylvisamminol, cimifugin, and sec-o-glucosylhamaudol by comparison with the reference substance. The similarity of the fingerprints of the 33 batches of S. divaricata is above 0.9. Cluster analysis divides the 33 batches of S. divaricata into 2 categories. Principal component analysis (PCA) roughly divides them into 4 categories. Partial least squares method-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) screened to obtain 2 differential markers, the different components were designated by the reference substance as 4-O-β-D-glucosyl-5-O-methylvisamminol and cimifugin. The fingerprint established by this study combined with chemometrics analysis is reasonable, effective, accurate, and simple, which makes the information more comprehensive and can provide a scientific basis and reference for quality control and quality evaluation of S. divaricata.