Quantitative Analysis of Total Flavonoids and Total Phenolic Acids in Thirty Hypericum Taxa

Abstract

The content of total flavonoids and total phenolic acids in the aerial parts of thirty Hypericum taxa collected over two consecutive seasons was investigated by spectrophotometric methods. All taxa examined contained flavonoids and phenolic acids in different quantities, although the differences between species and year's harvest were not found to be significant. The quantity of total flavonoids ranged from 0.1 to 1.6%. The highest content of flavonoids was found in the samples of H. japonicum (1.6%) and H. perforatum (1.5%), while the samples of H. androsaemum and H. balearicum comprised the lowest flavonoid amount (0.13%). The content of total phenolic acids in the investigated samples was found to be between 1.1-10.4%. The samples of H. perforatum were found to contain the highest quantity of phenolic acids (10.4% and 10.2%), whereas the sample ofH. linarifolium showed the lowest amount of phenolic acids (1.1%).