Changes of Chlorogenic Acids Content during Flowering in Genus Lonicera Plants

Lonicera has more species and are widely distributed in China,in which Lonicera japonica Thunb.is a traditional Chinese herbal medicinal source of honeysuckle.A high performance liquid chromatography(HPLC) with a photodiode array detector(HPLC-PAD) and a HPLC-electrospray ionization-multistage mass spectroscopy(HPLC-ESI-MSn) were employed for qualitative and quantitative analysis of chlorogenic acid in five Lonicera spp.plants at different flowering stages.The results indicated that buds and open flowers of all five species of Lonicera genus contained neochlorogenic acid,chlorogenic acid,chlorogenic acid methyl ester,isochlorogenic acid A and an isomers of isochlorogenic acid.Chlorogenic acid and total chlorogenic acids content were higher in flower bud than that in opening flower,but no significant variation in L.sempervirens.While the chlorogenic acids and the total content of chlorogenic acids in bud expand period(big white bud period) and the initial flowering period(silver period) of L.×heckrottii Rehd.'Huoyan',L.sempervirens and L.×tellmanniana is higher than that of L.japonica,but no significant differences between L.periclymenum L.'Geleimu' and L.japonica.Consequently,flowers and buds of these four Lonicera plants had high value to exploit.