This study aims to explore the effects of exogenous ABA on the accumulation pattern of differential metabolites in the roots of wild medicinal-edible plants Sphallerocarpus gracilis of Qilian Mountains. Ultra-high liquid phase system and ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-electrospray-triple quadrupole linear ion trap-tandem mass spectrometry （UPLC-ESI-QTRAP-MS/MS） extensive targeted metabolomics technology was used to detect and analyze the changes of metabolites in roots by applying with 20 μg·L^-1 exogenous abscisic acid （ABA） as well as 2000 mg·L^-1 sodium tungstate. The results showed that two kinds of carotenoids were detected in the roots of Sphallerocarpus gracilis for the first time， they were β-carotene and lutein， respectively. Furthermore， a total of 537 differential DAMs in 7 categories were identified， among them shikimic acid and phenylpropionic acid （206 species）， terpenoids（93 species）， alkaloids （92 species）and amino acids （84 species） accounted for a relatively high proportion. Pathway enrichment analysis was performed on differential metabolites based on Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes. The differential metabolites （DAMs） were distributed in 15 metabolic pathways in 5 categories， which were mainly enriched in phenylalanine metabolism， thiamine metabolism and tyrosine metabolism. In summary， exogenous ABA and its inhibitor sodium tungstate can affect the metabolic pattern of Sphallerocarpus gracilis， which is expected to be applied to the development of targeted regulators on key metabolic pathways.

Sphallerocarpus gracilis  /  Metabonomics  /  Abscisic acid  /  Differential metabolites  /  Pathway enrichment analysis