Bull. Natl. Mus. Nat. Sci., Ser. B, 39(1), pp. 25–51, February 22, 2013 Flavonoid Properties of five Families newly Incorporated into the Order Caryophyllales (Review) Tsukasa Iwashina Department of Botany, National Museum of Nature and Science, Amakubo 4–1–1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305–0005, Japan E-mail:
[email protected] (Received 8 November 2012; accepted 19 December 2012) Abstract Five families, Tamaricaceae, Plumbaginaceae, Polygonaceae, Droseraceae and Nepen- thaceae, were newly incorporated into the order Caryophyllales by APG. Nine families of original Caryophyllales, i.e. Phytolaccaceae including Acanthocarpaceae, Nyctaginaceae, Aizoaceae, Didiereaceae, Cactaceae, Chenopodiaceae, Amaranthaceae, Portulacaceae and Basellaceae, syn- thesize betalain pigments but not anthocyanins. However, other flavonoid classes can make in the flowers, leaves, stems, fruits and so on. In this paper, the flavonoid properties of the five families which were newly incorporated into the Caryophyllales are reviewed. As the results, anthocyanins have been reported from their families, together with other flavonoid classes, flavones, flavonols, C-glycosylflavones, flavan and proanthocyanidins, and rarely chalcones, aurones, flavanones and dihydroflavonols, except for the family Nepenthaceae. Key words : APG, Caryophyllales, Droseraceae, flavonoids, Plumbaginaceae, Polygonaceae, Nepenthaceae, Tamaricaceae. ilies, i.e. Tamaricaceae, Plumbaginaceae, Polygo- Introduction naceae, Droseraceae and Nepenthaceae, were Red to purple pigments in the colored flowers, incorporated into the order Caryophyllales by fruits, leaves, stems and sometimes roots and Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG). In this seeds of the vascular plants are anthocyanins. paper, the flavonoid properties of their five fami- However, the pigments in nine families of the lies, which were newly admitted to the Caryo- order Caryophyllales, i.e. Phytolaccaceae includ- phyllales, are reviewed.