Identification of gerbera cultivars based on differences in phenolic compounds in ray florets

Abstract

SummaryA method is described for the identification of gerbera cultivars using HPLC-analysis of phenolic compounds from ray florets. Anthocyanins and flavonoid copigments were analyzed in 65 genotypes. Different criteria for minimum peak area (pamin = 50, 100 or 1000 mVs) and peak matching (maximum difference in peak area, pdmax = factor 2 or 10) were used. The discrimination capacity for anthocyanins ranged from 92.3% of all 2080 pairwise comparisons, using pamin = 50 and pdmax = 2, to 70.5%, using pamin = 1000, pdmax = 10. For flavonoid copigments, the discrimination capacity ranged from 98.9% (pamin = 100, pdmax = 2) to 89.9% (pamin = 100, pdmax = 10). By combining the anthocyanin data (with pamin = 50) and the copigment data (with pamin = 100), using pdmax = 2, a discrimination capacity of 99.5% was obtained. No relation was found between copigment composition and floret colour. For anthocyanins, the yellow and white genotypes formed one cluster. Generally, the reddish and pinkish/purplish genotypes w...