Metabolic diversity and antioxidant activities: A comparative analysis of cultivated Juniperus communis clones.

This study implements nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) based metabolomics of six cultivated clones (C1-C6) of Juniperus communis L. and to assess their antioxidant properties, total phenolic and flavonoid content. Comprehensive analysis of polar and non-polar fractions led to the identification of 141 chemically diverse metabolites, including several compounds reported for the first time in J. communis. Among the clones, C-2 and C-6 exhibited the highest antioxidant activity (IC50 = 37.8 and 23.2 μg/mL, respectively), with the superior activity of C-2 associated with higher phenolic content and possible synergistic effects of multiple phytochemicals. Molecular docking studies further supported the identified metabolites such as salvianolic acid G, myo-inositol, quercetin 3-O-xylosyl-rutinoside and caffeoyl glucose as the highest predicted binding affinities toward the human peroxiredoxin 5. Furthermore, principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) revealed distinct clone-specific metabolic profiles. Overall, these findings provide valuable insights into J. communis chemistry and support its quality assessment for food, nutraceutical, herbal, and medicinal applications.