Geographical Factor Influences the Metabolite Distribution of House Edible Bird's Nests in Malaysia

Background: Edible Bird's Nest (EBN) is famously consumed as a food tonic for its high nutritional values with numerous recuperative and therapeutic properties. EBN is majority exploited from swiftlet houses but the differences in terms of metabolite distribution between the production site of house EBN is not yet fully understood. Therefore, this study was designed to identify the metabolite distribution and to determine the relationship pattern for the metabolite distribution of house EBNs from different locations in Malaysia. Methods: The differences of metabolite distribution in house EBN were studied by collecting the samples from 13 states in Malaysia. An extraction method of eHMG was acquired to extract the metabolites of EBN and was subjected to non-targeted metabolite profiling via liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Unsupervised multivariate analysis and Venn diagram were used to explore the relationship pattern among the house EBNs in Malaysia. The geographical distribution surrounded the swiftlet house was investigated to understand its influences on the metabolite distribution. Results: The hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA) combined with correlation coefficient revealed the differences between the house EBNs in Malaysia with four main clusters formation. The metabolites distribution among these clusters was unique with their varied combination of geographical distribution. Cluster 1 grouped EBNs from Selangor, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Terengganu which geographically distributed with major oil palm field in township; Cluster 2 included Perak and Sarawak with high distribution of oil palm in higher altitude; Cluster 3 included Perlis, Kelantan, Kedah, Penang from lowland of paddy field in village mostly and Cluster 4 grouped Sabah, Pahang, Johor which are majorly distributed with undeveloped hills. The metabolites which drove each cluster formation have happened in a group instead of individual key metabolite. The major metabolites that characterised Cluster 1 were fatty acids, while the rest of the clusters were peptides and secondary metabolites. Conclusion: The metabolite profiling conducted in this study was able to discriminate the Malaysian house EBNs based on metabolites distribution. The factor that most inferences the differences of house EBNs were the geographical distribution, in which geographical distribution affects the distribution of insect and the diet of swiftlet.