Chiang Mai Journal of Science

The objectives of this study were to analyze and compare chemical compositions and identify the metabolite profiles of Thai traditional rice cultivars. Fifteen rice varieties were grown under conventional agronomic practices. A metabolite profiling approach based on gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) was used to investigate metabolites in Thai traditional rice varieties. The similarity and difference of metabolite data were analyzed by principal component analysis. Statistical analysis of the amylose content showed that the rice verities could be classified into two groups: low and high amylose groups. The higher anthocyanin content was observed in the black- colored rice varieties. In addition, total 44 metabolites including organic acids, sugars and sugar-alcohols, unsaturated and saturated fatty acids were identified. The first and second principal components explained 90.18% of the total variation. The findings obtained from this study should provide the potential role of metabolite profiling in the study and improve rice production and quality.