1B); 3-yr-old plants had three and four leaves, respectively, each with three to five leaflets (Fig. 1C). Quantitative FT-IR spectra from ginseng leaves of different cultivars (Fig. 2A) and cultivation

ages (Fig. 2B) were obtained (Fig. 2). The most significant spectral variation among the four ginseng cultivars was observed in the polysaccharide region (1,050–1,150 cm−1) and amide region (1,550–1,650 cm−1) of the FT-IR spectra (Fig. 2A). The quantitative spectral variation among cultivation ages of ginseng leaves was also observed in GW-572016 order the polysaccharide region (1,050–1,150 cm−1) and in a broad range (1,200–1,500 cm−1) corresponding to phospholipid/DNA/RNA [39] of the FT-IR spectra (Fig. 2B). These FT-IR spectral variations from leaf samples simply indicate that there were qualitative and quantitative metabolic changes between the cultivars and cultivation ages of ginseng. The PCAs of the FT-IR spectral data are displayed in a two-dimensional plot using the first two principal components (Fig. 3A), which together accounted for 37.5% and 15.7% (53.2% total) of the total variation. PCA score plot showed that most leaf samples belonging GDC 0199 to the same cultivation age segregated into broad boundaries indicating that PCA had a relatively high distinguishing capacity between ginseng leaf samples with a cultivation age dependent

manner. Identifying the most significant spectral variables (i.e., those exhibiting the greatest variance on PC 1 and PC 2 scores) for sample separation is possible using PCA loading values. A PC score loading plot based on Branched chain aminotransferase PCA data from ginseng leaves is displayed in Fig. 3B. Significant FT-IR spectral variables for determining PC 1 and PC 2 were mostly distributed in the polysaccharide region (1,050–1,150 cm−1) and amide region (1,550–1,650 cm−1)

of the FT-IR spectra, respectively (Fig. 3B). These results indicate that qualitative and quantitative metabolic changes corresponding to polysaccharides and protein/amide regions I and II were important variations related to cultivation age. PLS-DA also indicated that a more discrete clustering pattern of ginseng leaves was possible (Fig. 4A). Most samples belonging to the same cultivation age, except the 2-yr-old open-pollinated variety, were grouped more closely in discrete clusters than they were in the PCA, indicating that PLS-DA was more clearly able to distinguish between cultivation ages. A dendrogram based on PLS-DA of the FT-IR spectral data (Fig. 4B) showed that the 12 categories of ginseng cultivars were separated into two major groups in a cultivation age-dependent manner without the 2-yr-old open-pollinated variety. The first group consisted of all 1-yr-old ginseng cultivars and the 2-yr-old open-pollinated variety.