. 2020 Oct 26;9(11):1542. doi: 10.3390/foods9111542

Table 1.

Primary metabolites (mg/g d.w.) of the different maturity stages of Aloe vera flowers. Stage I: immature; stage II: mature; stage III: mature with stamens exposed to the outside.

	Stage I	Stage II	Stage III
Amino acids
Glutamine	0.613 ± 0.027 ^a	0.748 ± 0.076 ^a	0.726 ± 0.186 ^a
Aspartate	0.273 ± 0.029 ^a	0.193 ± 0.027 ^b	0.252 ± 0.042 ^ab
Alanine	0.169 ± 0.027 ^a	0.206 ± 0.030 ^a	0.201 ± 0.013 ^a
Phenylalanine	0.263 ± 0.020 ^a	0.135 ± 0.029 ^b	0.111 ± 0.011 ^b
GABA	0.168 ± 0.032 ^a	0.119 ± 0.018 ^a	0.122 ± 0.022 ^a
Threonine	0.119 ± 0.023 ^a	0.091 ± 0.017 ^a	0.109 ± 0.036 ^a
Tyrosine	0.185 ± 0.013 ^a	0.151 ± 0.005 ^b	0.138 ± 0.025 ^b
Valine	0.096 ± 0.021 ^a	0.074 ± 0.018 ^a	0.087 ± 0.007 ^a
Isoleucine	0.064 ± 0.022 ^a	0.047 ± 0.014 ^a	0.064 ± 0.003 ^a
Free sugars Composition
Fructose	8.14 ± 0.25 ^c	11.81 ± 0.16 ^b	28.57 ± 0.88 ^a
Glucose	7.57 ± 0.53 ^c	17.34 ± 0.74 ^b	42.78 ± 7.24 ^a
Sucrose	11.07 ± 0.92 ^a	9.78 ± 0.19 ^a	3.12 ± 0.83 ^b
Trehalose	0.10 ± 0.00 ^c	0.14 ± 0.03 ^b	0.34 ± 0.02 ^a
Organic acids
Citric Acid	4.315 ± 0.216 ^a	2.919 ± 0.223 ^b	1.552 ± 0.097 ^c
Malic acid	2.134 ± 0.163 ^ab	2.404 ± 0.183 ^a	2.084 ± 0.087 ^b
Acetic acid	0.023 ± 0.002 ^b	0.026 ± 0.001 ^b	0.044 ± 0.013 ^a
Formic acid	0.009 ± 0.000 ^c	0.010 ± 0.000 ^b	0.015 ± 0.001 ^a
Fumaric acid	0.014 ± 0.001 ^a	0.013 ± 0.001 ^a	0.012 ± 0.001 ^a
Nucleoside derivatives
AMP	0.140 ± 0.016 ^a	0.131 ± 0.003 ^ab	0.116 ± 0.009 ^b
Adenosine	0.105 ± 0.014 ^a	0.096 ± 0.005 ^a	0.087 ± 0.005 ^a
Other metabolites
Choline	0.492 ± 0.024 ^a	0.458 ± 0.020 ^ab	0.426 ± 0.028 ^b
Trigonelline	0.519 ± 0.014 ^a	0.328 ± 0.004 ^b	0.180 ± 0.014 ^c
Ethanol	0.025 ± 0.004 ^a	0.019 ± 0.003 ^b	0.013 ± 0.001 ^c

Means (n = 3 ± SD). ^a–c Different letters in the same row indicate significant differences (p < 0.05) for maturity stages. GABA: Gamma γ-aminobutyric acid.