Mengxia Xiang’s research while affiliated with China Agricultural University and other places

Chrysanthemum is one of the four major cut flowers in the world, with high ornamental and economic value. Fragrance is an important ornamental character of chrysanthemum flowers, especially those consumed as tea and other foods, and the flower fragrance is the major determinant of the commercial value of chrysanthemum cultivars. Currently, however, the research on chrysanthemum flower fragrance is mainly focused on the composition and content of fragrant compounds, and a clear classification of fragrance types is lacking. Here, we divided chrysanthemum fragrance into six categories based on sensory evaluation and determined the identity and content of fragrant compounds of chrysanthemum accessions representative of each fragrance type by GC-MS. In addition, we analyzed the conserved aromatic substances responsible for the fruity fragrance type chrysanthemum with multi-functional development potential, providing a theoretical basis for creating new chrysanthemum germplasm with specific fragrance types. The results of this study can accelerate the breeding process of chrysanthemum accessions with new fragrance types.

Chrysanthemum morifolium is one of the four major cut flowers in the world and has important ornamental and economic value. Flower fragrance is an important ornamental character of chrysanthemum, especially for tea and edible chrysanthemum, and the excellent fragrance determines its commercial value. At present, however, chrysanthemum is mostly chrysanthemum fragrance and medicinal fragrance, and the research on chrysanthemum flower fragrance mainly focuses on the composition and content of fragrancetic substances, and there is no clear classification of fragrance types. Here, we divided chrysanthemum fragrance into six categories by sensory evaluation, and detected the fragrance components and contents of every representative chrysanthemum with different fragrance types by GC-MS. In addition, we analyzed the genetic conservative substances of fruity fragrance chrysanthemum with multi-functional development potential, which provided a theoretical basis for creating new chrysanthemum germplasm with specific fragrance types, which was conducive to accelerating the biological breeding process of chrysanthemum with new fragrance types.