Discrimination of Floral Scents and Metabolites in Cut Flowers of Peony (Paeonia lactiflora Pall.) Cultivars

Floral scents and metabolites from cut flowers of 14 peony cultivars (Paeonia lactiflora Pall.) were analyzed to discriminate different cultivars and to compare the Korean cultivar with the other cut peonies imported to Korea using electronic nose (E-nose) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy combined with multivariate analysis, respectively. Principal component analysis (PCA) and discriminant function analysis (DFA) dendrogram of peony floral scents were not precisely same but there were 3 groups including same cultivars. PCA and partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) dendrograms of peony metabolites showed that different cut peony cultivars were clustered into two major groups including same cultivars. Fragrance pattern of Korean 'Taebaek' was classified to same group with 'Jubilee' on the PCA and DFA results and its metabolite pattern was clearly discriminated by the PCA and PLS-DA compared to the other cultivars. These results show that the 14 peony cut flowers could be discriminated corresponding to their chemical relationship and the metabolic profile of Korean 'Taebaek' has distinctive characteristics. Furthermore, we suggest that these results could be used as the preliminary data for breeding new cut peony cultivars and for improving the availability of Korean cut peony in cosmetic industry.