Three-dimensional fluorescence characteristics of white chrysanthemum flowers

• White chrysanthemum flowers are popular food in East Asia.
• There were two fluorescence peaks associating with white chrysanthemum flower.
• The two peaks were ascribed to chlorophyll-like and flavonoids, respectively.
• Three-dimensional spectrometry is an intuitive method for the food quality control.

White chrysanthemum flower is one of the most popular plants found everywhere in China and used as herbs. In the present work, three-dimensional fluorescence technique was used to discriminate species of white chrysanthemum flowers. Parameters affecting extraction efficiency were investigated. Under the optimal conditions, the three-dimensional fluorescence characteristics of three types of white chrysanthemum flowers were obtained. It was found that there were two main fluorescence peaks with remarkable difference in fluorescence intensity, one was corresponding to flavonoids and another was attributed to chlorophyll-like compounds. There were remarkable differences among the contours of the three white chrysanthemum flowers. Further studies showed that the fluorescence intensity ratios of chlorophyll-like compounds to flavonoids had a certain relationship with the species; those for Huai, Hang and Huangshan white chrysanthemum flowers were 6.9–7.4, 18.9–21.4 and 73.6–84.5, respectively. All of the results suggest that three-dimensional fluorescence spectra can be used for the discrimination of white chrysanthemum flowers with the advantages of low cost, ease for operation and intuition.

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