Differentiation of Roots of Glycyrrhiza Species by 1H Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy and Multivariate Statistical Analysis

To classify Glycyrrhiza species, samples of different species were analyzed by $^1H$ NMR-based metabolomics technique. Partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) was used as the multivariate statistical analysis of the 1H NMR data sets. There was a clear separation between various Glycyrrhiza species in the PLS-DA derived score plots. The PLS-DA model was validated, and the key metabolites contributing to the separation in the score plots of various Glycyrrhiza species were lactic acid, alanine, arginine, proline, malic acid, asparagine, choline, glycine, glucose, sucrose, 4-hydroxy-phenylacetic acid, and formic acid. The compounds present at relatively high levels were glucose, and 4-hydroxyphenylacetic acid in G. glabra; lactic acid, alanine, and proline in G. inflata; and arginine, malic acid, and sucrose in G. uralensis. This is the first study to perform the global metabolomic profiling and differentiation of Glycyrrhiza species using $^1H$ NMR and multivariate statistical analysis.