The identification of poinsettia cultivars by HPLC analysis of their anthocyanin content

The anthocyanins of 28 cultivars of poinsettia were resolved by HPLC. The amount of each of the 5 anthocyanins was calculated, both by integration of the under their HPLC profile peaks and by second derivatives of the peaks. Comparisons of the two methods showed a correlation of 0.986. The amount and proportion oft he anthocyanins were affected by maturity, season of flowering, quality of irradiance and the specific area of the bract sampled. With careful selection of samples from plants grown under uniform conditions, there wre significant differences amongall 28 cultivars in the amount and proportion of the 5 anthocyanins.