From the blue coloured flowers of C l i t o r i a t er na t a L. (Leguminosae) three closely related anthocyanins namely, malvidin-3-B-glucoside, delphinidin-3-Pglucoside and 3 methyl derivative of delphinidin-3-/3-glucoside, have been isolated.Clitoria ternata [I] a common garden plant occurs among hedges all over the tropical regions from the Himalayas to Sri Lanka. The whole of the plant is reported to be medicinally important. It is useful in Snake-bites. Some preliminary work has already been done [2, 3, 41. The persent communication reports the detail structural study of the anthocyanins from the flowers.The flowers were extracted with one percent methanolic hydrochloric acid and the extract was separated by paper chromatography on Whatman No. 3 mm paper using the organic phase of butanol-acetic acid-water (4:1:5) into three components and they were identified to be monoglucoside derivatives of malvidin, delphinidin and 3'-0-methyl delphinidin. ExperimentalAll the components were purified by the lead salt method [5] and the homogeneity was checked by the paper chromatography. The first, anthocyanin, component had Rt 0.38 (BAW) [q and 0.23 (2N-HC1) [7]. It give blue-violet colour with aq.sodium carbonate, uneffected by the addition of sodium hydroxide. The anthocyanin showed a maximum absorption at 535 nm in the visible spectrum (1 010 MeOH-HC1). The anthocyanin was hydrolysed with 2 0 0 1 0 hydrochloric acid which afforded anthocyanidin and ,8-D(+) glucose, since it was also hydrolysed by the enzyme emulsin. The colour reaction showed it to be 3-glucoside. The anthocyanidin had Rr 0.44 (acetic acid-conc.HC1-water 5:1:5) [8] and 0.72 (2N-HCI) [9]. The anthocyanidin gave blue-violet colour with aq.sodium acetate, destroyed by the addition of ferric chloride. It showed a maximum absorption in the visible spectrum at 542 nm (1 O / o MeOH-HCl), uneffected by the addition of 1 0 1 0 ethanolic AICI,, characteristic of Malvidin derivative [lo].The anthocyanidin was not extracted with cyanidin reagent but was completely extracted with delphinidin reagent and completely destroyed in the oxidation test.Downloaded by: University of British Columbia. Copyrighted material.