Metabolite Characteristics in Tongue Coating from Damp Phlegm Pattern in Patients with Gastric Precancerous Lesion

Table 4

Key metabolic pathways identified from the significant differential metabolites in tongue coating between the damp phlegm pattern group and nondamp phlegm pattern group.

Pathway	Raw	Impact	Significantly different metabolites
GC-TOF-MS metabolomics analysis
Glyoxylate and dicarboxylate metabolism	0.041	0.007	Glycolic acid
Pentose and glucuronate interconversions	0.044	0.032	D-Xylitol
UHPLC-QE-MS positive ion mode metabolomics analysis
Primary bile acid biosynthesis	0.057	0.055	Cholesterol
Steroid hormone biosynthesis	0.118	0.004	Cholesterol
UHPLC-QE-MS negative ion mode metabolomics analysis
Arginine and proline metabolism	0.025	0.109	L-Proline; sarcosine
Caffeine metabolism	0.068	0.031	Xanthine
Glycine, serine and threonine metabolism	0.149	0.050	Sarcosine
Purine metabolism	0.268	0.036	Xanthine