Yucca schidigera is mainly distributed in southwestern US and the northern desert of Mexico. Its extract is widely used as a food additive for its antimicrobial activity. However, this antimicrobial activity is subject to significant variability across production lots. Yucca extracts are natural products and their composition is affected by their cultivation area and weather. Manufacturer deal with natural products such as food additives pay particularly close attention to quality control. In the present study, NMR metabolomics methods were used to screen the antimicrobial activity of yucca extracts. Yucca extracts were subjected to principal component analysis (PCA) and categorized on a score plot of their ¹H NMR spectral data according to their antimicrobial activity. Furthermore, hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) was also used to classify yucca extracts based on their antimicrobial activity. Classification using PCA and HCA was dependent upon saponin content, particularly that of schidigera-saponin A1 and D1, which was further confirmed by HPLC analysis of the yucca extracts. We demonstrated that NMR-based metabolomics is a potentially useful tool to use in combination with conventional quality control methods for yucca extracts used as food additives. We envisage this method as tool for initially screening the extracts prior to carrying out the officially recommended quality control tests.

中文翻译：

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通过使用NMR代谢组学筛选抗菌活性来改善用作食品添加剂的丝兰提取物的质量控制。

丝兰裂殖藻主要分布在美国西南部和墨西哥北部沙漠。其提取物因其抗菌活性而广泛用作食品添加剂。但是，这种抗菌活性在生产批次之间存在很大的差异。丝兰提取物是天然产物，其组成受种植面积和天气的影响。制造商在处理诸如食品添加剂等天然产品时特别注意质量控制。在本研究中，NMR代谢组学方法用于筛选丝兰提取物的抗菌活性。对丝兰提取物进行主成分分析（PCA），并按照其¹的得分图进行分类。1 H NMR光谱数据根据其抗菌活性而定。此外，还使用层次聚类分析（HCA）根据丝兰提取物的抗菌活性对其进行分类。使用PCA和HCA的分类取决于皂苷的含量，特别是五味子-皂苷A1和D1的皂苷含量，这通过丝兰提取物的HPLC分析进一步证实。我们证明，基于NMR的代谢组学是与常规质量控制方法结合使用的，用作食品添加剂的丝兰提取物的潜在有用工具。我们设想此方法为在进行官方推荐的质量控制测试之前，初步筛选提取物的工具。