Abstract
The Ginkgo biloba is one of ancient trees that exists from billions of years ago, its leaf and nut are used as herbs and foods in China, while so far its pollen does not have any application except pollination. In order to evaluate the antioxidant activity of Ginkgo biloba pollen, and rapidly screen its antioxidative components, the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging ability, total flavonoid, total phenol, and proanthocyanidin of Ginkgo biloba pollen were determined and compared with those of Ginkgo biloba leaf and nut, and the off-line DPPH-HPLC-PAD and HPLC-ESI-MS2 were applied for screening and identifying the antioxidant flavonoids in Ginkgo biloba pollen. The results showed that the DPPH scavenging ability of Ginkgo biloba pollen was much higher than Ginkgo biloba nut, but lower than Ginkgo biloba leaf, while the total content of flavonoid in Ginkgo biloba pollen was approximately 4.37 times higher than in Ginkgo biloba leaf. Further studies found that the major flavonol aglycone in Ginkgo biloba pollen was kaempferol, which accounted for 96.71% of the total aglycones (includes quercetin, kaempferol and isorhamnetin), and the main flavonoid components in Ginkgo biloba pollen were flavonoid glycosides. Finally, ten antioxidant peaks were screened and identified to be flavonoids (including kaempferol and nine flavonoid glycosides), so flavonoids were likely to be the main antioxidant components in GP, and among them, three novel kaempferol glycosides (peaks 1, 2, and 3) were found in Ginkgo biloba pollen for the first time, which had never been found in Ginkgo biloba.
Highlights
The Ginkgo biloba is one of ancient trees that exists from billions of years ago, which is wellknown as a “living fossil” in the worldwide area
The antioxidant components in Ginkgo biloba pollen (GP) were dominated by flavonoids, and it contained a small amount of Samples GP Ginkgo biloba leaf (GL) Ginkgo biloba nut (GN)
A technique that combining off-line DPPH-high performance liquid chromatograph (HPLC)-photodiode array detector (PAD) and HPLC-ESI-MS2 was used for the first time for antioxidants screening and identifying from GP
Summary
The Ginkgo biloba is one of ancient trees that exists from billions of years ago, which is wellknown as a “living fossil” in the worldwide area. It was firstly discovered in China, and rapidly spread into Korea, Japan, Netherlands and other countries and regions [1,2]. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript
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