FOOD SCIENCE

• Analysis & Detection • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Analysis of Free Amino Acids in Flower Buds of Hemerocallis Genus Plants by RP-HPLC

YANG Li1,2, LI Xiao-dong2, LIU Shu-ying1, SUN Guo-feng2, LIN Qin-wen2, LIU Hong-zhang1,*, ZHANG Jin-zheng2   

  1. 1. College of Life Science, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun 130118, China;
    2. Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China
  • Online:2014-08-25 Published:2014-08-25
  • Contact: LIU Hong-zhang

Abstract:

Objective: To analyze the composition of free amino acids in flower buds of plants from 8 wild species and 25
cultivated species of the genus Hemerocallis. Methods: A high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method to
determine free amino acids in flower buds of Hemerocallis genus plants was proposed using on-line precolumn derivatization
with o-phthalaldehyde. Comprehensive evaluation of these Hemerocallis species based on free amino acid composition was
performed by principal component analysis. Results: The results showed that the total amount of free amino acids varied
from 6.864 to 21.219 mg/g in flower buds of the 33 Hemerocallis species tested;14–16 kinds of free amino acids were
detected and their contents differed among different Hemerocallis species. All the investigated samples were richest in
asparagine, glycine, serine and glutamic acid among the flavor amino acids identified. Based on comprehensive evaluation
index, the edible species of Hemerocallis, Hemerocallis citrine, Hemerocallis minor, Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus and
Hemerocallis bearing white flowers, had the best quality followed by Hemerocallis ‘Stella Deoro’ and Hemerocallis ‘First
Spring’, whereas Hemerocallis ‘Xinkou’ and Hemerocallis ‘Yinguangfurong’ showed the poorest quality.

Key words: Hemerocallis, free amino acids, reverse phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC), o-phthalaldehyde

CLC Number: