Phenolic compounds and antioxidant activities of flowers, leaves and fruits of five crabapple cultivars (Malus Mill. species)

Abstract Crabapples are important ornamental plants because of the diverse color of their flowers, leaves and fruits. In addition, their flowers, leaves and fruits were rich in bioactive and nutraceutical compounds. However, most of them wasted and discarded in the field. In order to give a full use of them, the present study attempt to characterize the phenolic compounds and antioxidant activities of flowers, leaves and fruits of crabapples grown in northern China. Results showed that phenolic profiles and antioxidant activity were significantly different among flowers, leaves and fruits. Leaves of crabapples showed highest total phenolics content and DPPH radical scavenging activity. The content of chlorogenic acid in flowers is significantly higher than that in leaves and fruit. Phlorizin and rutin were the predominant flavonoid component in leaves, while the predominant flavonoid component in flowers were varied. The fruit contains more phenolic acids than flowers and leaves. Among the 5 cultivars studied, Malus cv. ‘Royalty’ had the highest catechin in flowers, leaves and fruits among all the samples. Malus cv. ‘Strawberry Parfait’ showed highest phloretin in flowers, while highest phlorizin in leaves. Based on all of these results, we propose that the flowers and leaves of crabapples also have good utilization value and strong potential for development.