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Zingiber species are members of the Zingiberaceae family, and are widely used for medicinal and food purposes. In this study aboveground and root parts of Zingiber mioga and Zingiber officinale were subjected to metabolite profiling by ultra-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF-MS) and gas chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC-TOF-MS) in order to characterize them by species and parts and also to measure bioactivities. Both primary and secondary metabolites showed clear discrimination in the PCA score plot and PLS-DA by species and parts. Tetrahydrocurcumin, diarylheptanoid, 8-gingerol, and 8-paradol were discriminating metabolites between Z. mioga and Z. officinale that were present in different quantities. Eleven flavonoids, six amino acids, six organic acids, four fatty acids, and gingerenone A were higher in the aboveground parts than the root parts. Antioxidant activities were measured and were highest in the root part of Z. officinale. The relatively high contents of tetrahydrocurcumin, diarylheptanoid, and galanganol C in the root part of Z. officinale showed highly positive correlation with bioactivities based on correlation assay. On the basis of these results, we can suggest different usages of structurally different parts of Zingiber species as food plants.

In this study, we investigated the clinical changes induced by a high fat diet (HFD) and caffeine consumption in a rat model. The mean body weight of the HFD with caffeine (HFDC)-fed rat was decreased compared to that of the HFD-fed rat without caffeine. The levels of cholesterol, triglycerides (TGs), and free fatty acid, as well as the size of adipose tissue altered by HFD, were improved by caffeine consumption. To investigate the metabolites that affected the change of the clinical factors, the urine and serum of rats fed a normal diet (ND), HFD, and HFDC were analyzed using ultra performance liquid chromatography quadruple time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF-MS), gas chromatography (GC-TOF-MS), and linear trap quadruple mass spectrometry (LTQ-XL-MS) combined with multivariate analysis. A total of 68 and 52 metabolites were found to be different in urine and serum, respectively. After being fed caffeine, some glucuronide-conjugated compounds, lysoPCs, CEs, DGs, TGs, taurine, and hippuric acid were altered compared to the HFD group. In this study, caffeine might potentially inhibit HFD-induced obesity and we suggest possible biomarker candidates using MS-based metabolite profiling.

Metabolite profiles of seven commercial vinegars and two traditional vinegars were performed by gas chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry with multivariate statistical analysis. During alcohol fermentation, yeast, nuruk, and koji were used as sugars for nutrients and as fermentation substrates. Commercial and traditional vinegars were significantly separated in the principal component analysis and orthogonal partial least square discriminant analysis. Six sugars and sugar alcohols, three organic acids, and two other components were selected as different metabolites. Target analysis by ultra-performance liquid chromatography quadruple-time-of-flight mass spectrometry and liquid chromatographyion trap-mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry were used to detect several metabolites having antioxidant activity, such as cyanidin-3-xylosylrutinoside, cyanidin-3-rutinoside, and quercetin, which were mainly detected in Rural Korean Black raspberry vinegar (RKB). These metabolites contributed to the highest antioxidant activity measured in RKB among the nine vinegars. This study revealed that MS-based metabolite profiling was useful in helping to understand the metabolite differences between commercial and traditional vinegars and to evaluate the association between active compounds of vinegar and antioxidant activity.

Xanthomonas oryzae causes rice bacterial blight, which has been reported as one of the most destructive diseases of rice. Metabolites were identified through cheonggukjang, a traditional Korean fermented soybean product fermented by the Bacillus spp., to control the bacteria. HPLC, MS, and UPLC-Q-TOF-MS analyses were performed to identify metabolites responsible for antimicrobial activity. In this analysis, the m/z values of 253.0498, 283.0600, 269.0455, 992.6287, and 1,006.6436 were identified as daidzein, glycitein, genistein, surfactin B, and surfactin A, respectively. The levels of surfactin B and surfactin A were found to be high at 24 h (4.35 μg/ml) and 36 h (3.43 μg/ml) of fermentation, respectively.