Abstract
Three anthocyanins (cyanidin 3-diglucoside, cyanidin 3-sambubioside and cyanidin 3-glucoside) together with eleven known alkaloids (lycoricidine, hipppeastrine,O-Demethyllycoramin, lycoricidinol, galanthine, lycorine, lycorenine, lycoramine, galanthamine, homolycorine and pretazettine) were identified in the flower and bulb of Lycoris radiata using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with UV detection and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. Anthocyanins play a major role in protecting plant’s DNA from the UV spectrum of sunlight and also in attracting insects for the purpose of pollination. Thus, knowledge on the contents and types of anthocyanins of L. radiata will help to evaluate the adaptive evolution of flowers and provide useful information for the ornamental breeding.
Highlights
Plants of the family Amaryllidaceae are well known for their ornamental values and for their alkaloids they produce
Cyanidin 3diglucoside and cyanidin 3-sambubioside have not been reported in the flower of L. radiata, but they were found to be an important determinant of floral colors in L. radiata
Identification of anthocyanins was primarily based on the comparison of their retention time and elution order together with mass spectrometric data with standards and isolation methods described previously [7,8]
Summary
Plants of the family Amaryllidaceae are well known for their ornamental values and for their alkaloids they produce. Some of these alkaloids exhibit interesting pharmacological and biological activities. Lycoris radiata belongs to Amaryllidaceae family of perennial plants, and 20 different species are distributed in East Asia including China, Japan, Korea and Nepal. The Korean peninsula has seven Lycoris species such as L. flavescens, L. chinensis var. Since 2000, several Korean researches have reported identification of metabolites from Lycoris species [2,3]. Floral colors of L. radiata are due to biological pigments of different kinds of molecules, such as porphyrins, carotenoids, anthocyanins and betalains. Cyanidin 3diglucoside and cyanidin 3-sambubioside have not been reported in the flower of L. radiata, but they were found to be an important determinant of floral colors in L. radiata
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