Research on correlation between color and active compounds of Lonicerae Japonicae Flos in different development periods / 中草药

ABSTRACT

Objective: To provide references for quality evaluation of Lonicerea Japonicae Flos (LJF) through exploring correlation between color and contents of active ingredients of LJF in different development periods. Methods: The colorimeter was used to measure the color of LJF in different development periods; HPLC was applied to determine the contents of phenolic acids, flavonoids and iridoids. SPSS 17.0 software was used to analyze the correlation between color and chemical composition of LJF. Results: With the development of flower buds, the contents of phenolic acids, flavonoids compounds achieved the highest in two white stages and the contents of iridoids came to the highest in big white stage and silver flower stage. Therefore, only taking the consideration of the content of active ingredient, the best harvest time of LJF might be the big white stage. There was a significant positive correlation among contents of phenolic acids, flavonoids and brightness (L*) of LJF in different development periods, and there was a very significant negative correlation among contents of phenolic acids, flavonoids, iridoids, and browning index (BI). Conclusion: The color of LJF is closely related to the content of active ingredients, L* and BI can better link appearance and inner quality of LJF.