Nutritional, functional components, and geographical origin authentication of Forsythia suspensa from different geographical origins based on UPLC-MS/MS combined with chemometrics

Background Qingqiao ( Forsythia suspensa ) is a valuable traditional medicinal herb with considerable industrial potential owing to its rich profile of nutritional and functional components. However, systematic characterization of its metabolite composition across different growing regions remains limited, constraining effective quality control and origin-based standardization for industrial applications. Results In this study, a comprehensive UPLC-MS/MS-based metabolomics approach combined with chemometric analysis was employed to compare Qingqiao samples from 3 distinct geographical origins: the Loess Plateau (LP), the Guanzhong Plain (GZP), and the Qinling Mountains (QM). 3,052 metabolites were identified, comprising 1,114 primary and 1,938 secondary metabolites. Distinct metabolic profiles were observed among the 3 regions: LP samples were abundant in organic acids, alkaloids, lignans, coumarins, flavonoids, quinones, amino acids, and derivatives; QM samples exhibited higher levels of lipids, steroids, terpenoids, and tannins; while GZP samples were enriched in phenolic acids, nucleotides, and their derivatives. Combined content-function analysis indicated that GZP1, GZP2, GZP3, QM3, QM4, LP1, LP2, LP5, and LP6 had strong potential to develop functional products. Comparative analysis revealed 557, 667, and 359 differentially accumulated metabolites between GZP-vs-LP, GZP-vs-QM, and QM-vs-LP, respectively, which were significantly enriched in 8 key metabolic pathways. Furthermore, 14 differential metabolites were identified as origin-specific biomarkers, including two rare compounds (xylosyl phellodendroside and 2-glucosyl-glucosyloxy-2-phenylacetic acid amide) which emerged as novel region-specific markers for Qingqiao. Validation using random forest and OPLS-DA demonstrated exceptional discriminative accuracy (93.33%), confirming the robustness of these markers. Conclusions This study elucidated the region-specific variations in nutritional and functional components of Qingqiao, and established a robust, metabolomics-driven framework for authenticating its geographical origin, offering critical insights for quality control, functional application, and industrial standardization of Qingqiao.