Abstract:

The flowers from stock plant and bud mutational branches of Osmanthus fragrans‘Jingui’were used for this research. First，the Royal Horticultural Society Color Chart（R.H.S.C.C.）and colorimeter was used for the measurement of the phynotype parameters. The pigment types were preliminary identified with the method of color reaction and UV–Vis analysis. The HPLC–DAD was used to measure the contents of carotenoids and total flavonoids. The dominate carotenoid components were further identified by the HPLC–APCI–MS and standards. The results showed that the flower color of the mutational branches became into reddish orange（inside：R.H.S.C.C. 23B；outside：R.H.S.C.C. N25A），which was different from the yellow color（R.H.S.C.C. 12B–13A）of the flowers from stock plant. Furthermore，it was comfirmed that both of these two kind petals contained flavonoids，but without anthocyanins，and different content of carotenoids. Finally，α-carotene and β-carotene were detected as the main carotenoid components in the petals of the two kind flowers. The content of α-carotene，β-carotene and total carotenoids in the petals of the mutational branches were significant higher than those in the petals of stock plant，whereas there was no significant difference between the total flavonoid content of two samples. Therefore，carotenoids were considered as the dominate pigments which led to the change of flower color of mutant.

Key words: Osmanthus fragrans&lsquo, Jingui&rsquo, ；bud mutation；flower color；pigments；carotenoids