Health Promoting Compounds in Black Currants - the Start of a Study Concerning Ontogenetic and Genetic Effects

摘要

Many parts of black currant plants (buds, leaves and fruits) are rich sources of phenolic compounds with potential health promoting properties. For this reason we have started a project to investigate the ontogenetic, genetic and environmental effects on the content of specific phenolic compounds. Extraction, identification and analysis of phenolic compounds from different black currant plant organs have been optimized considering the extraction method and HPLC-DAD analysis. The compounds were identified and quantified using HPLC-ESI-MS characteristics and commercial standards. Here the variation in content of phenolic compounds in buds collected during one season is presented. The results show that swollen buds collected in March had highest content of phenolics with rutin, epicatechins and kaempferols being dominant, whereas the content of chlorogenic acid was very low through out the season.