Survey of Phenolic Compounds Produced in Citrus
Flavonoid Composition of Citrus

Natsudaidai orange (Citrus natsudaidai), a grapefruit-like Citrus species, exhibits morphological characteristics of a pummelo crossed with a mandarin (Hodgson 1967) or a sour orange crossed with a mandarin (Kamiya et al. 1979). Natsudaidai orange has been reported to contain naringin (Horowitz and Gentili 1977), neohesperidin (Mizelle et al. 1965, Albach and Redman 1969, Nishiura et al. 1971b), and neoeriocitrin (Kamiya et al. 1979). The major flavanone is reportedly naringin (Horowitz and Gentili 1977), yet hesperidin has been found previously (Albach and Redman 1969).

Our analysis shows that in fruit tissues naringin is the predominant flavanone, followed by neohesperidin, while the opposite is true in leaves. Moderate amounts of narirutin, hesperidin, narirutin–4'–glucoside, and naringin–4'–glucoside are also present. In addition, there is a small amount of neoeriocitrin in the leaves. The only flavone/ol component of Natsudaidai orange is rhoifolin.

previous page

next page

United States Department of Agriculture
Agricultural Research Service

The material on this page is in the public domain.

Original posting: April 1, 1999.