ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition and Food Science Technology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1637247
This article is part of the Research TopicStorage and Deep-Processing of Fruit and Vegetable ProductsView all 3 articles
Optimizing Processing Methods for Maximum Bioactive Retention: Comparative Metabolomic Analysis of Dried Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) Flowers and Their Powdered Extracts
Provisionally accepted
Mingzheng Duan1
Jieming Feng1Jing-Han Feng1Xi Wang1Xu Xiao1Shirong He1Wenyan Zhang1Zhumao Jiang1Tongfa Wan2
Muhammad Junaid Rao3*Hengcui Guo4*- 1Zhaotong University, Zhaotong, China
- 2Yongshan County Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, zhaotong, China
- 3Zhejiang A and F University, Hangzhou, China
- 4Zhaotong Municipal Bureau of Science and Technology, Zhaotong, China
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Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) flowers are a rich source of bioactive flavonoids, but their 15 nutraceutical potential depends on post-harvest processing. This study evaluated the impact of heat-16 drying (HD) and freeze-drying (FD) on flavonoid retention in loquat flowers and their hot-water pow-17 dered extracts using UPLC-MS/MS metabolomics and antioxidant assays. Freeze-drying significantly 18 preserved thermolabile compounds, with cyanidin showing a 6.62-fold increase (Log2FC 2.73) in FD 19 compared to HD, while delphinidin 3-O-beta-D-sambubioside surged 49.85-fold (Log2FC 5.64). In 20 contrast, heat-drying degraded many flavonoids but selectively enhanced others, such as 6-hydroxylu-21 teolin (27.36-fold increase, Log2FC 4.77), and methyl hesperidin showed highlest percentage abun-22 dance (10.03%). Freeze-dried powder (FDP) exhibited the highest antioxidant activity (608.83 μg 23 TE/g), linked to elevated levels of key metabolites like eriodictyol chalcone (18.62-fold increase, 24 Log2FC 4.22). Multivariate analyses confirmed distinct clustering, with FD samples closely grouped, 25 indicating stable metabolite preservation. Heat-dried samples showed greater variability, reflecting ther-26 mal degradation and pathway activation. The results demonstrate that freeze-drying optimizes flavonoid 27 retention, making it ideal for high-quality nutraceuticals, while heat-drying may suit cost-effective pro-28 duction of select heat-stable compounds. These insights guide the development of standardized loquat 29 flower products, balancing bioactive preservation with processing efficiency for functional food and 30 herbal medicine applications.
Keywords: Loquat flower flavonoidspowder, Freeze-drying vs heat-drying, Bioactive flavonoid compound preservation, UPLC-MS/MS metabolomics, antioxidant capacity
Received: 29 May 2025; Accepted: 22 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Duan, Feng, Feng, Wang, Xiao, He, Zhang, Jiang, Wan, Rao and Guo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Muhammad Junaid Rao, Zhejiang A and F University, Hangzhou, China
Hengcui Guo, Zhaotong Municipal Bureau of Science and Technology, Zhaotong, China
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