Analysis of petal anthocyanins to investigate coloration mechanism in herbaceous peony cultivars

Petal coloration and anthocyanin compositions of 41 herbaceous peony cultivars were analyzed. Anthocyanins were identified by high-performance liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (HPLC–ESI-MSn) coupled with photodiode array detection (DAD). Peonidin-3,5-di-O-glucoside (Pn3G5G), pelargonidin-3,5-di-O-glucoside (Pg3G5G), cyanidin-3,5-di-O-glucoside (Cy3G5G), peonidin-3-O-glucoside (Pn3G), and cyanidin-3-O-glucoside (Cy3G) were the five major anthocyanins in herbaceous peony cultivars. Deep purple or reddish purple cultivars contained 4–5 anthocyanins, whereas pink cultivars only contained Cy3G5G and Pn3G5G, and their contents were much lower than those of purple cultivars. According to the chemical structures of three anthocyanidins in association with petal coloration, flowers were classified into three phenotypes: 1. “Pn, Cy, and Pg” (all purple flowers including two pink flowers); 2. “Pn, Cy” (pink flowers); 3 “Pn” (light pink and white flowers). The coloration mechanisms of cultivars with the pink and purple flowers were quite different. Correlations between lightness (L*) and chroma (C*), chromatic component a* and total anthocyanins (TA) value, a* and co-pigmentation index (CI) showed opposite tendencies, whereas L* and TA showed the same tendency in each group. High contents of Pn3G5G and Pg3G5G may responsible for the purple coloration of herbaceous peony cultivars.