UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS driven quality characterization of market-dominant Huajiao cultivars: Varietal heterogeneity of...

As a cornerstone of Chinese culinary and medicinal heritage, Huajiao owes its multifaceted bioactivities predominantly to amide compounds. However, the intricate interplay between cultivar-specific amide profiles and processing-induced metabolic shifts remains poorly characterized. This study employed UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS-based untargeted metabolomics to systematically and initially characterize the amide metabolomes of seven market-dominant Huajiao cultivars and evaluate the effects of three drying-methods on amide retention. Cultivar-specific metabolic disparities were pronounced: Hancheng cultivar exhibited the richest amide repertoire (49 amides), with discriminant biomarkers (sylvamide) enabling robust cultivar differentiation. Machine-drying (49 amides) outperformed sun-drying (47 amides) and shade-drying (44 amides), highlighting its superior capacity to mitigate thermal degradation. Comparative extraction profiling revealed that oil-phase-extraction (53 amides) outperformed aqueous-phase-extraction (51 amides) in amides enrichment, underscoring solvent-dependent extraction efficiency. Multivariate analyses corroborated significant metabolic divergence among cultivars and processing groups, emphasizing the interactive effects of genotype, environment, and processing on amide accumulation. This work offers a metabolomics-based framework for Huajiao quality standardization, promoting cultivar-specific processing and solvent optimization to boost bioactive retention and industrial application.