The herbaceous peony (Paeonia lactiflora Pall.) is a traditional rare flower in China, and production of its cut flowers has developed gradually in many places of the world. However, the inflorescence stems of some P. lactiflora cultivars have such low mechanical strength that the cut flower production was severely restricted. To better understand the causes of this problem from a protein expression level, two P. lactiflora cultivars with different inflorescence stem mechanical strengths were analyzed by two-dimensional electrophoresis and MALDI-TOF/MS. More than 1700 clear protein spots were detected, 53 of which varied significantly. Moreover, 23 of the differentially expressed proteins were identified and confirmed and are involved in various biological processes such as metabolism, protein biosynthesis and transport, signal transduction, and defensive response. Especially, cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase (CAD) and xyloglucan endotransglucosylase/hydrolase (XTH) were strongly connected to the inflorescence stem mechanical strength in P. lactiflora.

Aronia melanocarpa (black chokeberry) is rich in bioactive compounds. In this study, polyphenols from A. melanocarpa were extracted using both ultrasound-assisted deep eutectic solvent (DES) and conventional organic solvents (80% methanol and 60% ethanol). The crude extracts were purified using AB-8 macroporous resin. The purified fractions were analyzed by ultrahigh performance liquid chromatographyquadrupole time-of-flighttandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTOF-MS/MS), identifying and quantifying 49 polyphenolic compounds, including 16 anthocyanins, 3 procyanidins, 20 flavonoids, and 10 phenolic acids. The DES extract exhibited the highest total polyphenol content (84.56 ± 3.85 mg/g), significantly surpassing the conventional extracts. Antioxidant activities were evaluated in vitro by assessing the scavenging capacities against hydroxyl, DPPH, and ABTS+ radicals. The DES extract demonstrated superior antioxidant activity in all assays. Furthermore, the DES-extracted A. melanocarpa polyphenols (AMP) and a blueberry polyphenol (BP) extract underwent in vitro simulated digestion. Postdigestion, the AMP extract showed significantly stronger inhibitory effects on α-glucosidase and pancreatic lipase activities compared to BP, indicating its greater potential for hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic applications. Results demonstrate that ultrasound-assisted DES extraction is a highly efficient and green method for obtaining polyphenol-rich extracts from A. melanocarpa with enhanced bioactivity, providing a scientific basis for its utilization in functional foods.