Nutritional and functional components of mulberry leaves from different varieties: Evaluation of their potential as food materials

ABSTRACTMulberry leaves had been used as material of medicine, drink, and functional foods in many countries, but the variety suitability for different applications is still not clear. In this study, the nutritional and phytochemical components of mulberry tender shoots from 19 varieties in China were investigated. Obvious genotypic diversity was observed in all the assessed components. The contents of crude protein (CP), total soluble sugars (TSS), crude fiber (CF), 1-deoxynojirimycin (DNJ), total phenolic (TP), and total flavonoid content (TF) were 27.63–37.36 g/100 g dry weight (DW), 58.71–150.31 mg/g DW, 9.90–13.85 g/100 g DW, 0.08–1.12 mg/g DW, 8.76–20.26 mg gallic acid equivalents (GAE)/g DW, and 21.36–56.41 mg rutin equivalents (RE)/g DW, respectively. Chlorogenic acid, rutin, isoquercitrin, and astragalin were considered to be mainly potential antioxidant compounds in mulberry leaves. According to the result of correlational analysis, principal component analysis (PCA), and hierarchical cluster an...