Assessment of phenolic compound accumulation in two widespread goldenrods

•Phenolic compounds quantification in numerous plants of invasive goldenrods.•Solidago canadensis and S. gigantea exposed highly different chemical composition.•Inter- and intra-specific chemical characterisation of two Solidago species.•A multivariate analysis of chemical data.•Reduced chemical heterogeneity increases the quality of raw materials.

This research investigated the accumulation of phenolic compounds in two alien goldenrods, Solidago canadensis and S. gigantea, to assess their inter- and intra-specific chemical diversity. Five compounds of pharmacological interest, chlorogenic acid, rutin, hyperoside, quercitrin, and isoquercitrin, were detected in metanolic extracts from the leaves and inflorescences of goldenrods and were quantified using the HPLC-PAD method. Differences in the compound accumulations between the species, plant parts and accessions were tested using multivariate statistical analyses, including HCA and PCA. S. canadensis and S. gigantea plants had highly different chemical compositions. S. gigantea had significantly higher accumulations of all investigated compounds except for rutin; the rutin content was much greater in S. canadensis. The leaves of both species had greater accumulations of chlorogenic acid and quercitrin, whereas the inflorescences of S. gigantea had the greatest accumulations of rutin, isoquercitrin and hyperoside. The statistical analysis indicated that the intraspecific chemical diversity of goldenrods is relatively weak, resulting in wild populations producing a fairly homogenous raw material. Invasive goldenrods are negatively valued due to the threat they pose to the local vegetation; the results of our study indicate that they can be of value as potential sources of phenolic compound production.