Metabolite profiles of commercial colored Thai corn hybrids (Zea mays L.)

Abstract

Corn hybrids (Zea mays L.) of various kernel colorizations are continually being developed due to increased demand, acceptance and utilization among consumers. A broad range gas chromatography-flame ionization detector-based metabolite profiling method was used to investigate the low molecular weight constituents of five colored Thai corn hybrids grown simultaneously at the same location and in the same season. The results showed that the majority of lipid metabolites was higher in the variety 7566 than the others as well as fraction IV (acids) metabolites. Notably, this variety also contained a high amount of nutritionally important phytosterols (sitostanol, campesterol, stigmasterol, Δ7-campestenol). Principal component analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis separated the varieties into three distinct groups based on metabolite abundance. Importantly, there was no separation based on kernel color. No previous research regarding differentiating colored Thai corn hybrids using metabolite profiling currently exists; thus, this method can provide valuable information for crop improvement, nutritional analysis and functional quality assessment within the food industry and nutritional sciences.