Abstract: We analyzed the metabolic intermediate and final products, including anthocyanins and flavones, in 82 cultivars of Chinese chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum × morifolium) divided into 6 groups by color: white, pink, red, purple, reddish-purple and dark-red. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with a photodiode array detector (HPLC-PAD) and HPLC-electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MSⁿ) were used for qualitative and quantitative analysis of anthocyanin and flavone. The higher the cyanin accumulation in the chrysanthemum flower, the darker the color. The cyanin content in white, pink, red, purple, reddish-purple and dark-red flower groups was 4.68, 111.60, 366.89, 543.56, 1 220.36 and 2 674.95 μg·g^–1, respectively, for a significant difference among groups (P<0.01). Quantitative analysis revealed no significant difference among color groups in flavonoid content (P>0.05), except for the dark-red group, which had notably higher content of flavonoids and anthocyanins than other groups (P<0.01). The darker the flower color, the higher the ratios of metabolic flux from the naringenin to eriodicyol and from the eriodicyol to cyanins on the basis of lightness colorimetric values. Thus, the cyanin pathway is the only flower-color metabolic pathway in chrysanthemum, although three different pathways lead to different flower colors. We provide a metabolic flux figure on the anthocyanin metabolic pathway in chrysanthemum comparing anthocyanin content in different flower colors. The different ratios to cyanins from narigenins and eriodicyol are the crucial metabolic points that induce the diverse cyanin products in flowers and then lead to the various flower colors. These results provide a theoretical basis for molecular breeding to improve flower color in chrysanthemum.

Key words: anthocyanin, chrysanthemum, flavone, flower color