Purified flavonoid extract from illuminated parsley (Petroselinum crispum (Mill.) Nym.) cell culture was administered by gavage to Wistar rats. The dose corresponded to 6.9 mg flavonoids on aglycone base/kg body mass. Segments of the gastrointestinal wall from stomach to colon, their luminal contents, and liver and kidneys were collected at time intervals between 1 and 12 h and investigated by HPLC of the respective extracts for flavonoids. The spreading of the flavonoids was accompanied by partial deglycosylation that began already in the stomach where at first quercetin and later apigenin, chrysoeriol and isorhamnetin aglycones were detected. We got evidence of flavonoid absorption by the stomach that does not require the liberation of aglycones. Due to obvious differences in metabolization and absorption rates the composition and the content of flavonoids changes in the gastrointestinal segments and their contents with time. Flavonoids could be detected neither within the gastrointestinal lumen after 12 h nor in the kidneys at any time. But traces of flavonoids were found in the livers at 1.5 and 12 h.

The flavonoid aglycones from an illuminated parsley (Petroselinum crispum (Mill.) Nym.) cell suspension culture were identified and quantified as the flavones apigenin, luteolin and chrysoeriol and the flavonols kaempferol, quercetin and isorhamnetin. Flavonoid extracts from these cultures were purified by solid phase extraction from RP C-18 phase and given by gavage to rats. Only extract from illuminated culture increased the antioxidative capacity (AOC) of blood plasma temporarily with maximum values after 1 h. It is concluded that the course of AOC reflects changes in the plasma content of flavonoids.