Introduction: Fruit borer disease, caused by Leucinodes orbonalis, is a significant threat to Solanum melongena (eggplant) production, leading to major yield losses. The larvae infest the fruit and shoots, causing internal damage that affects quality and marketability. Early diagnosis is crucial for effective pest management, and metabolomics offers a promising approach by identifying biochemical markers associated with the plant’s response to infestation. Method: The present work aims to understand the alteration in the metabolomic profiling of infected Solanum melongena peel extract compared with that of a healthy one using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Results and Discussion: We carried out the experiments using three test samples and three control samples. Our results indicated that a total of 121 metabolites were present in the control and 78 metabolites in the test sample. Specifically, among these compounds, only six metabolites were present in both control and test samples. Furthermore, we carried out statistical analysis for the abovementioned six compounds using the Student t-test. Conclusion: Our findings indicated that linolelaidic acid (upregulated) and 5-hydroxy methyl furfural (downregulated) are the more significant metabolites. These compounds may serve as a lead for evaluating the influences of fruit borer disease in brinjal.
Anbarasan et al. (Tue,) studied this question.