Study on changes in pigment composition during the blooming period of safflower based on plant metabolomics and semi-quantitative analysis

Red and yellow pigments are the major ingredients of safflower, often used to color food and cosmetics. Carthamin, the main component of red pigment, and hydroxysafflor yellow A, anhydrosafflower yellow B were representative components of yellow pigment. Plant metabolomics and semi-quantitative analysis were used to analyze the changes of pigment composition during blooming period, especially these characteristic components. Carthamin, hydroxysafflor yellow A, anhydrosafflower yellow B and other components were screened out as differential metabolites based on plant metabolomics. Then semi-quantitative analysis was used to quantify these three representative components of pigments. Experimental results showed that: content of pigments has dynamic changes along with flowering, in the early blooming period, yellow pigment accumulated much and red pigment was low in content. In the middle period, the accumulation rate of the yellow pigment slowed down and content was stabilized. In the next step, the content of yellow pigment gradually decreased, and the content of red pigments gradually increased. Later, the level of yellow pigment decreased significantly, and accumulation rate of red pigment increased significantly. Lastly, the appearance color of safflower was red, with yellow parts barely visible, and accumulation of red pigment was highest, yellow pigment was lowest in content. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.