Flavonoids and biflavonoids in Tuscan berries of Juniperus communis L.: detection and quantitation by HPLC/DAD/ESI/MS.

The aim of the present work was to develop a quali-quantitative investigation, using HPLC/DAD and HPLC/ESI/MS techniques, of the phenolic composition of berries collected from wild Tuscan plants of Juniperus communis L. and grown in three different geographical zones. The applied chromatographic elution method made it possible to well separate up to 16 different compounds belonging to flavonoids, such as isoscutellarein and 8-hydroxyluteolin or hypolaetin glycosides, and six biflavonoids, among them amentoflavone, hynokiflavone, cupressoflavone, and methyl-biflavones. To the best of the authors' knowledge this is the first report on the presence of these compounds in juniper berries. The flavonoidic content in the analyzed berries ranged between 1.46 and 3.79 mg/g of fresh pulp, whereas the amount of the biflavonoids was always lower, varying between 0.14 and 1.38 mg/g of fresh weight.