Abstract:

There were much hydroxybenzenes, polysaccharides, glucosides, flavone compounds found in flowers and the buds of Tilia amurensis, and proteins, coumarins and cardiac glycosides were also detected by systematically pretesting the chemical composition. In addition, tannins were found in buds. Hydroxybenzenes, polysaccharides, glucosides, flavones, coumarins and tannins were detected in fruits. The contents of soluble sugars, total phenolics and flavones in flowers and fruits of T. amurensis at different latitudes and elevations were investigated, and the results indicated that the contents of the three compositions varied with the latitude and elevation. Except total phenolics in flowers, the contents of other compositions in flowers and fruits decreased with increasing latitude and elevation. The content of soluble sugars in flowers was obvious higher than that in fruits, while other chemical composition contents were similar in flowers to that in fruits. By comparing the clustering analysis on the chemical compositions and genetic distance analysis of T. amurensis, we found that the variations of the content of chemical compositions were discontinuous at latitudes gradients while they are continuous at different elevation gradients.

Key words: Tilia amurensis, chemical composition, soluble sugars, flavone, total phenolic, geographic variation