Phytochemical differences in wild and cultivated fruits of the ethnobotanical medicine black wolfberry (Lycium ruthenicum)

Lycium ruthenicum Murr. (LR) is a notable medicinal and edible plant from Northwest China, rich in bioactive compounds. However, the phytochemical and metabolic differences between wild and cultivated LR are not well understood. This study used untargeted metabolomics to reveal the differences in metabolite accumulation between wild and cultivated LR. Metabolomics results identified a total of 466 metabolites, with 153 showing differential accumulation. These differential metabolites were predominantly enriched in pathways related to secondary metabolite biosynthesis, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, and arginine and proline metabolism. Cultivated LR contained higher levels of flavonoids, amino acids and derivatives, lipids, nucleotides and derivatives, lignans, coumarins, and tannins compared to wild LR. Conversely, wild LR had significantly higher contents of most phenolic acids, alkaloids, organic acids, and terpenoids than cultivated LR. With significant differences in soil composition between the two growing regions, variations in the accumulation of flavonoids and phenolic acids were observed between wild and cultivated LR fruits, indicating that soil conditions during growth likely influence their metabolite levels. Therefore, exploring the metabolites of wild and cultivated LR offers new insights for agricultural breeding and cultivation and supports further research into its quality formation and evaluation.