Quality Formation Mechanism of Stiff Silkworm, Bombyx batryticatus Using UPLC-Q-TOF-MS-Based Metabolomics

is a well-known animal in traditional Chinese medicine. The aim of the research was to reveal the quality formation mechanism of and to screen out the characteristic component used for the quality control. The anticonvulsant effects of with a stiff time of one, five, and nine days (D1, D5 and D9, respectively) and healthy silkworm of the same developmental stage (SW) were determined by animal experiment. The dynamic changes in chemical composition were analyzed using UPLC-Q-TOF-MS-based metabolomics. D5 and D9 exhibited significant anticonvulsant effects ( < 0.05 and < 0.01, respectively). Accordingly, principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares discrimination analysis (PLS-DA) indicated that the chemical composition of D5 and D9 changed significantly. The different metabolites mainly consisted of primary metabolites such as lipids and amino acids and secondary metabolites such as flavonoids, beauvericin, and glycolipids. Interestingly, the relative abundance of quercetin-7- -β-d-4- -methylglucoside, the characteristic component of , increased with stiff time and was promised to be used as an index component of quality control. The results expand our understanding of the quality formation mechanism of . In addition, it highlights the potential of UPLC-Q-TOF-MS-based metabolomics for the quality control purpose of TCMs.