Evaluation Study Of Blue Honeysuckle (Lonicera Caerulea) Germplasm Resources

Blue honeysuckle(Lonicera caerulea) has high edible, health care and medical value because of the existence of the unique functional components, as a kind of distinctive berry resource, It has broad prospects for development. Blue honeysuckle resources is rich in Northeast China, but there was less research on the germplasm resources. Based on the above understanding, this study will evaluate blue honeysuckle from phenotypic traits, biochemical composition and antioxidant activity so that theoretical basis is provided for the collection, evaluation, utilization of blue honeysuckle germplasm resources and variety breeding.1. The phenotypic genetic diversity of blue honeysuckle was abundant.The average variable type among 28 discribed characters was up to 3.06,and the shape of fruit had the largest variation coefficient with 5. Among 10 numerical characters,the variable coefficient of single fruit weight was the largest, at 23.27% and the variable coefficient of flower length was the largest, at 7.14%. Study on correlation analysis among quantitative characters showed that there was positive correlation between leaf width and single fruit weight. Leaf width can predict single fruit weight partly. It is reliable to distinguish different germplasm resources with four characters above. The result of R cluster analysis showed that 28 phenotypic characters were divided into six groups, of which four phenotypic characters were divided into four groups by themselves. It turned out that blue honeysuckle germplasm resources can be distinguished clearly based on fruit character, fruit morphology, shape of leaf, foliage condition and corolla color. The result of Q cluster analysis showed that 54 blue honeysuckle germplasm resources were divided into three groups. 28 phenotypic characters were mainly composed of 8 independent principal components,including 23 phenotypic characters such as the leaf width.2. There were significant differences in the nutrient content of the different fruits of blue honeysuckle. The extreme ratio of each component was 1.68 to 3.48. The variation coefficient of total anthocyanin was the highest, at 24.78%; the variation coefficient of soluble solids content was the lowest, at 6.9%. It turned out that soluble solid content was stabilized, and in terms of anthocyanin contents, blue honeysuckle has great breeding potential. On the biochemical index of correlation analysis showed that soluble solids content with soluble sugar, sugar acid ratio and vitamin C content was significantly and positively correlated. Total phenols, total flavonoids, total anthocyanin was very significantly and positively correlated, and the correlation coefficient between any two was more than 0.7. Principal component analysis simplified 7 biochemical indexes into 3 main components. Cluster analysis of Q divided 40 resources into 4 groups, and there were significant differences in different biochemical composition of this 4 groups.3. The DPPH test was performed to determine antioxidant activity which was 2.83 mg trolox equivalent/g fresh mass. The ABTS was also performed to determine antioxidant activity which was 19.86 mg trolox equivalent/g fresh mass. Maximal scavenging capacity of free radicals was twice as minimal scavenging capacity of free radicals. Reseach on correlation analysis among different biochemical components and antioxidant capacity showed that there were significant relation between antioxidant capacity and the content of total anthocyanin, total flavonoids and total phenols. The range of correlation coefficient was from 0.72 to 0.99. Antioxidant activity correlated more closely with total phenolic content than that total flavonoid content and total anthocyanin content with.4. The result of fuzzy comprehensive evaluation analysis on 40 blue honeysuckle germplasm resources showed that some of them have excellent fruit comprehensive characters on account of higher fuzzy comprehensive index, such as, ZJ36, ZJ29, ZJ23, etc. It was found that several germplasm resources were also outstanding in some or other character, such as ZJ2, ZJ26, ZJ33, etc. It is suggested that these excellent germplasm resources can be used as materials in new variety breeding.