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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Ithaca, New York » Robert W. Holley Center for Agriculture & Health » Plant, Soil and Nutrition Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #377550
Research Project: Genetics, Epigenetics, Genomics, and Biotechnology for Fruit and Vegetable Quality

Location: Plant, Soil and Nutrition Research

Title: Genotypic variation of flavonols and antioxidant capacity in broccoli

Author
item DUAN, YONGBO - Cornell University
item SANTIAGO, FRANKLIN - Cornell University
item REIS, ANDRE - Cornell University
item FIGUEIREDO, MARISLAINE - Cornell University
item ZHOU, SUPING - Tennessee State University
item Thannhauser, Theodore - Ted
item Li, Li

Submitted to: Food Chemistry
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/31/2020
Publication Date: 2/15/2021
Citation: Duan, Y., Santiago, F., Reis, A., Figueiredo, M., Zhou, S., Thannhauser, T.W., Li, L. 2021. Genotypic variation of flavonols and antioxidant capacity in broccoli. Food Chemistry. 338:127997. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2020.127997.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2020.127997

Interpretive Summary: Flavonols are gaining an increasing interest due to their diverse health benefits for humans. Broccoli is a main flavonol source in our diet. However, the ability of different varieties of broccoli in accumulating flavonols and the correlation with total flavonoids and antioxidant capacity have not been fully investigated. In this study, we performed a comprehensive evaluation of broccoli variety collection for their variations in flavonols along with total flavonoids and antioxidant capacity. We found great variation of these traits in florets of broccoli. We discovered that the variation in flavonol content is associated with the key flavonol biosynthetic gene expression. In addition, we showed that selenium application does not reduce the flavonol levels, indicating the possibility to simultaneously increase multiple chemopreventive compounds in broccoli as a functional food. The flavonol levels was noticed to be correlated with antioxidant capacity-related attributes. These findings provide important information for broccoli flavonol variations and its correlation with antioxidant capacity, and will facilitate the development of high-flavonol cultivars in broccoli.

Technical Abstract: Flavonols are gaining increasing interests due to their diverse health benefits for humans. Broccoli is a main flavonol source in our diet, but the genetic variation of flavonols and their correlation with antioxidant capacity remain to be fully understood. Here, we examined variations of the two major flavonols kaempferol and quercetin in florets and leaves of 15 diverse broccoli accessions by UPLC. Broccoli accumulated more kaempferol than quercetin in most of the accessions tested, with the ratios varying from 4.4 to 27.9 in leaves and 0.4 to 4.4 in florets. Total flavonoids showed 2.5-fold and 3.3-fold differences in leaves and florets of these accessions, respectively. Principle components analysis revealed that flavonols, along with key biosynthetic pathway genes, correlated with antioxidant capacity related indicators. This study provides important information for broccoli flavonol genotypic variations and the correlation with antioxidant capacity, and will facilitate the development of flavonol enriched cultivars in broccoli.