[Comparison of metabolite extraction from Boea hygrometrica by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry]

This study is aiming to establish an efficient metabolite extraction method for exploration of molecular mechanisms of desiccation tolerance of the resurrection plant Boea hygrometrica using a metabolomics approach. The extracts of metabolite in B. hygrometrica using methanol solution (method A) and methanol-chloroform-water solution (method B) were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The total numbers of chromatographic peaks, extraction efficiency, retention time and the peak stability were compared. The results showed that for fresh materials, the total chromatographic peak number of method B is more than that of method A; the extraction efficiency of nine representative metabolites by method B is higher than that by method A; the comparison of 10 random chromatographic peaks revealed that the relative standard deviation (RSD) values of the retention time are less than 1% for both methods, whereas the RSD values of the extraction efficiency is different. The percentage of peaks that owned RSD values of the extraction efficiency higher than 10% is 50% for method A and 100% for method B. In addition, method B was also efficient for dry materials from B. hygrometrica. The number of chromatographic peaks, RSD value of retention time and extraction efficiency of dry materials was similar to that of fresh materials using method B, but decreased sharply using method A. Putting together, our study provided evidence that method B is an efficient extraction method for further analysis of metabolites from this resurrection species.