Tissue-specific anthocyanin quantification, comprehensive phytochemical profiling, and chemometric analysis of fruit and aerial parts of Rubus buergeri Miq.

Abstract

Rubus buergeri , a winter-fruiting species native to East Asia, remains poorly characterized phytochemically. This study presents the first comprehensive phytochemical profiling of fruits and aerial parts collected from Jeju Island, Korea. A validated ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography–photodiode array (UHPLC–PDA) method enabled simultaneous quantification of anthocyanins and anthocyanidins. Quantitative analysis revealed pronounced tissue-specific and inter-individual variation. Aerial tissues contained cyanidin 3- O -glucoside (C3G; 9.1–125.0 μg/g) and cyanidin 3- O -rutinoside (C3R; 7.9–51.1 μg/g), while fruits showed relatively higher C3R levels (14.5–58.2 μg/g). Following acid hydrolysis, cyanidin was generally more abundant in aerial tissue (1298–3487 µg/g), whereas fruits contained cyanidin (1035–3563 µg/g) and markedly higher pelargonidin (279.7–555.5 µg/g). LC–QToF-MS identified 137 metabolites, and chemometric analyses revealed clear metabolic clustering between tissues. This integrative approach provides a robust dataset for understanding phytochemical composition, tissue-specific metabolic specialization, and potential functional properties of R. buergeri .