Chinese Bulletin of Botany ›› 2015, Vol. 50 ›› Issue (6): 721-732.DOI: 10.11983/CBB14194

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Composition of Flavonoids in Lotus Pollen

Qian Wu1, Shuai Shao1, Shanshan Li2,3, Huijin Zhang2, Liangsheng Wang2*   

  1. 1College of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
    2Key Laboratory of Plant Resources and Beijing Botanical Garden, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China
    3University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • Received:2014-11-15 Accepted:2015-04-26 Online:2015-11-01 Published:2015-09-06
  • Contact: Wang Liangsheng
  • About author:

    ? These authors contributed equally to this paper

Abstract: We used ultra-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (I-Class UPLC/Xevo TQ MS) to separate and identify the flavonoids in lotus pollens from 50 cultivars. Lotus pollen contains 13 flavonols and 2 flavones, all reported in lotus pollen for the first time. The most abundant flavonoids were quercetin glucosides, namely quercetin 3-O-glucuronide, quercetin 3-O-rhamnopyranosyl-(1→2)-glucopyranoside and quercetin 3-O-arabinopyranosyl-(1→2)- galactopyranoside, detected in all cultivar pollen. The total flavonoid (TF) content ranged from 82.64 to 281.08 mg∙100 g-1 in 50 cultivars, with Fei-Yun-Qian-Ye showing the highest TF and Xian-Nv-San-Hua the lowest. According to cluster analysis, 50 lotus cultivars were classified into four groups; group B contained more flavonoids than other groups, and group B TF content was the highest. TF content in Fei-Yun-Qian-Ye, Bo-Li-Xiao-Jie and Shu-Hong-Lian exceeded 200 mg∙100 g-1 dry weight and could be developed into lotus pollen products.