Metabolomic Profiling of the White, Violet, and Red Flowers of Rhododendron schlippenbachii Maxim

• Published in: Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 23; no. 4; p. 827
• Main Authors: Park, Chang Ha, Yeo, Hyeon Ji, Kim, Nam Su, Park, Ye Eun, Park, Soo-Yun, Kim, Jae Kwang, Park, Sang Un
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 04.04.2018; MDPI
• Subjects: Acids; anthocyanin; Anthocyanins; Anthocyanins - metabolism; Chromatography; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; Flowers; Flowers - chemistry; Flowers - metabolism; Fumaric acid; Gas chromatography; Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; High performance liquid chromatography; Intermediates; Ions; Liquid chromatography; Malic acid; Mass spectrometry; Mass spectroscopy; Metabolites; metabolomic profiling; Metabolomics; Metabolomics - methods; Phenotypic variations; Principal Component Analysis; Principal components analysis; Rhododendron; Rhododendron - chemistry; Rhododendron - metabolism; Rhododendron schlippenbachii Maxim; Secondary metabolites; Succinic acid; Tricarboxylic acid cycle; metabolomic profiling; Rhododendron schlippenbachii Maxim; anthocyanin
• ISSN: 1420-3049; 1420-3049
• DOI: 10.3390/molecules23040827

Maxim. is a garden plant that is also used for natural medicines as a consequence of the biological activities of its diverse metabolites. We accordingly profiled two anthocyanins and 40 primary and secondary metabolites in the three different colored flowers. The major anthocyanins found in the flowers were cyanidins. The red flowers exhibited the highest accumulation of anthocyanins (1.02 ± 0.02 mg/g dry weight). Principal component analysis was applied to the GC‒TOFMS data. The levels of key tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates in red flowers, such as succinic acid, fumaric acid, and malic acid, were found to be highly significantly different ( < 0.0001) from those in the flowers of other colors. In this study, we aimed to determine metabolite interactions and phenotypic variation among white, violet, and red flowers of by using gas chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC‒TOFMS) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).