Comparative Analysis of Nutritional Quality of Dendrobium Officinale Kimura Et Migo After Transplantation of Artificially Cultivated Plants From South to North China During Different Growing Years

Abstract Background: Dendrobium officinale Kimura et Migo is a traditional functional food and medicinal plant in China. Due to low natural regeneration rates, habitat destruction, excessive collection and commercial trade, D. officinale is severely threatened, and commercial artificial-sheltered cultivation has been massively used to meet the needs of the market. Aim: To comprehensively compare the accumulation of nutritional compounds during 3-5 years of introduced, artificial-sheltered cultivation from southern to northern China.Methods: D. officinale of the same species were artificially cultivated in the southern traditional cultivation area, Anhui and the new northern cultivation area, Beijing. First, samples were collected in the third, fourth, and fifth years of growth, and nutritional quality indexes, including polysaccharides, alkaloids, flavonoids and total phenolic content, were determined. Second, an untargeted metabolomics method was used to investigate metabolic variations in D. officinale stems between Anhui and Beijing cultures in the fifth year.Results: After comparing the nutrient accumulation in different growing years, the idea harvest time was found in the third growing year in both cultivation areas. Of them, the contents of polysaccharides, flavonoids and total polyphenol were higher in cultivation in Anhui than Beijing, but the accumulation of alkaloid content was much lower in Anhui. The highest amount of polysaccharides of Dendrobium officinale was found in the three-year cultivation in Anhui, which reached 515.75 mg/g. When metabolites were analysed, a total of 272 metabolites were detected in the current study, including 27 up-regulated and 73 down-regulated metabolites in D. officinale cultivated in Beijing compared with samples from Anhui. Conclusion: D. officinale artificially and transplanted cultivated from southern to northern China showed some significant differences in the accumulation of nutrient compounds. Planting in northern China has some specific advantages, but the overall nutritional value is not as good as planting in southern China. Our study contributes to a better understanding of the nutrient profiles of D. officinale through artificial cultivation in different areas.