Analysis of Petal Anthocyanins to Investigate Flower Coloration of Zhongyuan (Chinese) and Daikon Island (Japanese) Tree Peony Cultivars

Abstract

A comparative study was conducted on Zhongyuan (130, Chinese) and Daikon Island (37, Japanese) tree peony cultiiars to analyze anthocyanin constitutions in the petals in relation to flower colors. The distribution of flower hues displayed by loci of colors on a UELAB (International Commission on Illumination) diagram was found to be similar between cultivars of the two areas. However, the flower colors of a traditional classification did not correspond with the CIELAB hues. An identification by chemical structure of three anthocyanidins in the petals (pelargonidin, Pg; cyanidin, Cy and peonidin, Pn) classified the cultiiars into four flower groups, i.e. Pn, Pg; Pn, Pg>Cy; Pn, Cy and Pn,Cy > Pg groups. Each group consequently specified significant features among CIELAB color notation and petal pigmentation, being adequate to characterize tree peony flowers as similar between Zhongyuan and Daikon Island cultivars, thus the cultivars of the two areas are suggested to be related to one another.

Phenetics in Tree Peony Species from China by Flower Pigment Cluster Analysis

“…We assume that the loss or lack of peonidin and cyanidin glycosides in tree peony cultivars (Sakata et a/. 1995, Wang et a/. 2001) is due to their replacement during pelargonidin synthesis by mutation (Harborne and Smith 1978).…”

“…The procedure for the extraction of pigments was described in a recent report (Wang et al 2001). Fresh petals were treated with boiling water for a few seconds to prevent enzymatic degradation of pigments.…”

“…Qualitative HPLC analysis of five anthocyanins was used with a linear flow-gradient under the conditions described in a recent report Wang et al 2001) with peonidin 3,5-di-0-glucoside (Pn3G5G), peonidin 3-0-glucoside (Pn3G), cyanidin 3,5-di-O-glucoside (Cy3G5G), cyanidin 3-0-glucoside (Cy3G), and pelargonidin 3,5-di-0-glucoside (Pg3G5G) (Fig. 1).…”

“…The copigment indices (Cl) varied among species (Robinson and Robinson 1931, Asen et al 1972, Figueiredo et a/. 1996, Wang et a/. 2001.…”

¿Es Alstroemeria pulchra Sims var. maxima Phil. (Alstroemeriaceae) un miembro del complejo A. magnifica Herbert?: Estudio colorimétrico de los tépalos externos e internos de la flor

“…L* representa la claridad o luminosidad relativa de los colores en una escala de 0 a 100, donde valores bajos indican oscuro y valores altos indican luz en sucesiva escala de grises hasta llegar al color blanco (100); los valores positivos de a* indican rojo y los valores negativos indican verde en tanto el parámetro b* tiene valores negativos para azul y positivos para amarillo. El valor C* (croma o saturación) se calculó como (a* 2 +b* 2 ) 1/2 y el valor h (tono, hue) fue calculado como arctg (b*/a*) (Sacks & Shaw 1994, Wang et al 2001. Croma representa la intensidad de un color, de modo que valores bajos indican opacidad (más cercano al gris) y valores altos representan brillantez (más cercanos al color puro).…”