Metabolomics-Based Analysis of the Effects of Different Cultivation Strategies on Metabolites of <i>Dendrobium officinale</i> Kimura et Migo

<i>Dendrobium officinale</i> Kimura et Migo is a famous plant with a high medicinal value which has been recorded in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia (2020 Edition). The medicinal properties of <i>D. officinale</i> are based on its chemical composition. However, there are no reports on how different cultivation methods affect its chemical composition. In order to reveal this issue, samples of the <i>D. officinale</i> were collected in this study through tree epiphytic cultivation, stone epiphytic cultivation, and greenhouse cultivation. Polysaccharides were determined by phenol sulfuric acid method and secondary metabolites were detected by the UPLC-MS technique. In addition, with regards to metabolomics, we used multivariate analyses including principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal partial least squares analysis (OPLS-DA) to screen for differential metabolites which met the conditions of variable importance projection values >1, fold change >4, and <i>p</i> < 0.05. The differential metabolites were taken further for metabolic pathway enrichment analysis, which was based on the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database, and validated by antioxidant activity. Comparing the three groups of samples according to the standards of the ChP (2020 edition), the results showed that the polysaccharide content of the samples from stony epiphytic cultivation and greenhouse cultivation was significantly higher than that of the samples from live tree epiphytic cultivation. Metabolomic analysis revealed that there were 185 differential metabolites among the 3 cultivation methods, with 99 of the differential metabolites being highest in the stone epiphytic cultivation. The results of the metabolic pathway enrichment analysis showed that the different cultivation strategies mainly effected four carbohydrate metabolic pathways, five secondary metabolite synthesis pathways, six amino acid metabolic pathways, one nucleotide metabolism pathway, three cofactor and vitamin metabolism pathways, and one translation pathway in genetic information processing. Furthermore, <i>D. officinale</i> from stone epiphytic cultivation which had the best antioxidant activity was implicated in differential metabolite production. This study revealed the effects of different cultivation methods on the chemical composition of <i>D. officinale</i> and also provided a reference for establishing the quality control standards to aid its development and utilization.