title: Defensive strategies in Geranium sylvaticum. Part 1: organ-specific distribution of water-soluble tannins, flavonoids and phenolic acids.
abstract: A combination of high-resolution mass spectrometry and modern HPLC column technology, assisted by diode array detection, was used for accurate characterization of water-soluble polyphenolic compounds in the pistils, stamens, petals, sepals, stems, leaves, roots and seeds of Geranium sylvaticum. The organs contained a large variety of polyphenols, five types of tannins (ellagitannins, proanthocyanidins, gallotannins, galloyl glucoses and galloyl quinic acids) as well as flavonoids and simple phenolic acids. In all, 59 compounds were identified. Geraniin and other ellagitannins dominated in all the green photosynthetic organs. The other organs seem to produce distinctive polyphenol groups: pistils accumulated gallotannins; petals acetylglucose derivatives of galloylglucoses; stamens kaempferol glycosides, and seeds and roots accumulated proanthocyanidins. The intra-plant distribution of the different polyphenol groups may reflect the different functions and importance of various types of tannins as the defensive chemicals against herbivory.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Organic Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Department of Chemistry, University of Turku, FI-20014 Turku, Finland. Electronic address: ankatu@utu.fi.
authors.forename: Anu
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tuominen
authors.forename: Eija
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Toivonen
authors.forename: Pia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mutikainen
authors.forename: Juha-Pekka
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Salminen
mesh_terms: D060467:Disease Resistance; D005419:Flavonoids / Q000378:metabolism*; D031315:Geranium / Q000378:metabolism*; D005960:Glucosides / Q000378:metabolism; D006027:Glycosides / Q000378:metabolism; D060434:Herbivory; D047348:Hydrolyzable Tannins / Q000378:metabolism*; D062385:Hydroxybenzoates / Q000378:metabolism; D010636:Phenols / Q000378:metabolism*; D010935:Plant Diseases; D018514:Plant Structures / Q000378:metabolism*; D059808:Polyphenols / Q000378:metabolism; D013634:Tannins / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D005419:Flavonoids; D005960:Glucosides; D006027:Glycosides; D047348:Hydrolyzable Tannins; D062385:Hydroxybenzoates; D010636:Phenols; D059808:Polyphenols; D013634:Tannins; C024603:Geraniin; C017616:phenolic acid
keywords: Ellagitannins; Flavonoid glycosides; Galloyl quinic acids; Galloylglucoses; Geraniaceae; Geranium sylvaticum; HPLC-DAD; HPLC-HR-ESI-TOF-MS; Proanthocyanidins; Wood cranesbill