Variations in flavonoid compounds of the leaves and fruits of quince (Cydonia oblonga Mill.) genotypes from northern regions of Iran

Quinces use as bearing fruit tree and also have numerous medicinal effects, such as high contents of antioxidants including phenols and flavonoids. Due to importance of flavonoids in the physiological and medicinal aspects of this tree, the current research was conducted to investigate the variations of flavonoids in the leaves and fruits of quince genotypes from northern regions of Iran, comparing them with cultivar Esfahan as control. So, it was followed by using 24 genotypes including ARD1-7, Beh Amroudi, Beh Sibi, Beh Givi Kowsar from Ardebil province, LA1 and LA3 from Tehran provinces, M1, M2, M3, M4, M8 and M9 from Khorasan and AS1, ASM1, ASM2, ASM3, ASP1 and ASP2 from Guilan province. The results showed significant differences in the total flavonoids in the leaves and fruits of the quinces. According to the results, M3 and LA1 genotypes respectively had the highest and lowest total levels of the flavonoids in their leaves with 21.9 and 3.1 mg QE/g values, compared with the control cultivar containing 13.4 mg QE/g. Also the results of the flavonoid contents of the fruits indicated the highest level in control cultivar, Esfahan with 6.2 mg QE/g, while all other genotypes had significantly lower levels of flavonoids. Also evaluation the effects of sampling period on the variation of total contents of the leaf flavonoids showed that the highest concentration of these compounds belonged to the beginning of the summer, while the leaves had lower levels of flavonoids at other sampling periods.