Abstract
Three quercetin glucosides were isolated from flower buds of Japanese butterbur (Petasites japonicus subsp. gigantea Kitam.) together with caffeic acid as the ingredients that had DPPH radical scavenging activity, using the DPPH-HPLC method for measuring the radical scavenging activity. These quercetin glucosides were identified as quercetin 3-O-β-D-glucoside, quercetin 3-O-β-D-6″-O-acetylglucoside, and rutin, and the amounts of the glucosides in flower buds were also examined by HPLC. The flower buds were harvested from four different sites, the total amount of quercetin glucosides in each site was 100-170 mg/100 g fr. wt., and there were no great differences of the amounts between growing fields.
