Abstract:

To evaluate the delphinidin biosynthesis ability of different chrysanthemum varieties，three varieties of pink flowers were employed，and the petals were fed with 2 mg · mL-1 DHM. The delphinidin content in DHM fed petals was determined. By optimizing the analysis conditions，we established an effective way of quantitative determination of delphinidin via UPLC. The results showed that anthocyanin of chrysanthemum flowers can be extracted by 0.1 mol · L-1 hydrochloric acid methanol，and 10% formic acid in a ratio of 9︰1（v/v），and followed by filtering through 0.22 μm filter membrane. Through the optimization of elution conditions，delphinium can be separated from other anthocynins within nine minutes. Based on optimized UPLC analysis method，delphinium concentration within 2.5–40 mg · L-1 has a good linear relationship with peak area，and the correlation coefficient is 0.997. We found that all the varieties could produce delphinidin when fed with DHM，the contents of delphinidin in three varieties are all over 220 μg · g-1 FW，inferring the tested varieties are promising host varieties for blue flower genetic modification.

Key words: chrysanthemum, dihydromyricetin, delphinidin, ultral high performance liquid chromatography（UPLC）, blue flower color