To study the composition of non-volatile small molecules in shrimp pastes from different geographical origins.

Metabolomics based on ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-Q Exactive high field-mass spectrometry was used to detect metabolites in shrimp pastes from Shandong, Guangdong and Hebei. The characteristic metabolites of shrimp paste from each region were identified by orthogonal partial least square-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA).

Shrimp paste was rich in amino acid and fatty acid metabolites, forming a large number of N-acyl compounds, with cinnamic acid, 11’-carboxy-α-chromanol and β-leucine being the major ones. It was found that shrimp paste also contained active neurotransmitters such as dopamine, norepinephrine, 6-hydroxymelatonin, and γ-glutamine-5-hydroxytryptophan. The major characteristic metabolites of Shandong shrimp paste were cinnamic acid and β-leucine. 12-Hete-T and N-oleyl taurine were the major characteristic metabolites in Guangdong shrimp paste. The major metabolites of Hebei shrimp paste were eicosapntemacnioc acid (EPA) and cyanidin-3-O-(6’-malonyl-arabinoside).

Shrimp paste is rich in small molecules such as β-leucine, glutamic acid, proline-valine and leucine-glycine as well as bioactive ingredients such as taurine, norepinephrine and dopamine. The composition of metabolites in shrimp paste is region specific.