Abstract:The basic nutritional and functional components of asparagus from selected production areas were determined in this study. The locations included: Heze, Shandong (S1); Xuchang, Henan (S2); Mile, Yunnan (S3); Guiyang, Guizhou (S4); and Ji’an, Jiangxi (S5). A comprehensive evaluation was conducted for asparagus quality using correlation analysis, principal component analysis, and cluster analysis. The results showed that the 32 quality indicators were simplified into four principal components, and that the cumulative variance contribution rate was 100%. In conjunction with correlation analysis, 13 quality indicators were selected from the 32 indicators, namely potassium, lignin, total phenolic acid, zinc, narcissin, nicotiflorin, pectin, total saponins, caffeic acid, soluble protein, chlorophyll, phlorizin and kaempferol. Cluster analysis results showed that the five asparagus production areas could be divided into three categories, with overall quality ranked from best to worst as S1, S2, S5, S4, and S3. The production areas with similar rankings were placed in the same category, indicating that the results obtained by the two analysis methods were relatively consistent. This study provides a theoretical basis for the quality evaluation of asparagus from different production areas as well as the selection of core quality indicators.
