Abstract: The compositions and contents of anthocyanins and nonanthocyanin phenolics in three cultivars of sweet cherry (‘Rainier’, ‘Hongyan’ and ‘Hongdeng’) were analyzed by using high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). The separation of anthocyanins was achieved on a Kromasil 100-5C18 column (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 6.5 μm) using a mobile phase consisting of water/formic acid/acetonitrile at a flow rate of 1.00 mL/min by gradient elution. The injection volume was 30 μL and the column temperature was set at 50 ℃. The detection wavelength was 525 nm. Meanwhile, the separation of nonanthocyanin phenolics was accomplished a Zorbax SB-C18 column（50 mm × 3.0 mm, 1.8 μm）using a mobile phase consisting of 1% acetic acid aqueous solution and 1% acetic acid acetonitrile solution at a flow rate of 1.00 mL/min by gradient elution. The injection volume was 2 μL and the column temperature was set at 25 ℃. The detection wavelength was 280 nm. The results showed that a total of 9 anthocyanin compounds were detected in these cultivars of sweet cherry, mainly cyanidin-3-rutinoside and cyanidin-3-glucoside, their contents in the skin of ‘Hongyan’, ‘Rainier’, ‘Hongyan’ cherries and the pulp of ‘Hongdeng’ cherries were 5.21, 2.51, 75.70 and 7.40 mg/g, and 0.09, 0.07, 3.57 and 0.34 mg/g, respectively. In addition, two nonanthocyanin phenolic compounds were also detected, namely quercetin-3-rutinoside and kaempferol-3-rutinoside. The contents of quercetin-3-rutinoside and kaempferol-3-rutinoside in the skin of ‘Hongyan’, ‘Rainier’ and ‘Hongdeng’ cherries were 0.30, 0.63 and 0.74 mg/g, and 1.17, 2.91 and 2.37 mg/g, respectively.

Key words: high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS), sweet cherry; anthocyanin compounds, nonanthocyanin phenolic compounds