Abstract: Anthocyanins cause red or purple color in Brassica vegetables. The HPLC-MS method was used to analyze components and amounts of anthocyanins in purple heading Chinese cabbage（Brassica rapa L. ssp. pekinensis），purple pakchoi and caixin（Brassica rapa L. ssp. pekinensis），red cabbage（Brassica oleracea L. var. capitata），and red leaf mustard（Brassica juncea Coss.）. Totally 20 anthocyanins were separated and identified in these Brassicas. They were major cyaniding，minor delphinidin and petunidin. The main anthocyanins in red leaf mustard，purple heading Chinese，pakchoi and caixin were acylated cyanidin 3-sophoroside-5-glucosides，acylated cyanidin 3,5-diglucosides and cyaniding-3- sinapoylferuloylsophoroside-5-malonylglucoside，accounting for 46.51%，56.04%，46.38% and 68.96% of total anthocyanins. The main anthocyanins in red cabbage were cyanidin 3-sinapoylsophoroside-5-glucoside，cyanidin 3-sophoroside-5-glucoside，cyanidin 3-p-coumaroylsophoroside-5-glucoside，accounting for 41.87%，20.58% and 16.02% of total anthocyanins. The total amounts of anthocyanins were 719.04 μg ? g-1 FW in red leaf mustard，604.03 μg ? g-1 FW in purple heading Chinese cabbage，264.96 μg ? g-1 FW in red cabbage，219.07 μg ? g-1 FW in purple caixin and 130.02 μg ? g-1 FW in purple pakchoi，respectively. Two specific acylated cyanidin 3-sophoroside-5-glucosides and one specific petundin-3,5-diglucoside were identified in purple heading Chinese cabbage.

Key words: Brassica, anthocyanin, HPLC-MS, purple Chinese cabbage