Lime flowers are traditionally used as medicinal plants. According to the Pharmacopeia Europaea, only three species of Tilia are admitted as source species. However, so far, no methods enabling the discrimination between these three species and other species of Tilia occurring in Europe have been established. It is also not clear whether the chemical composition of extracts from lime flowers differs between source species. Here, we describe a comprehensive validated UHPLC-DAD-MS/MS method to distinguish the five most important Tilia species in Europe based on phytochemical analyses of extracts prepared from their flowers. Forty-two phenolics were detected in the analyzed extracts and twenty-one of them were quantified using a validated method. A chemometric analysis revealed significant differences between the investigated species. Based on the chemical profile of their extracts, we provide a dichotomous key for the identification of Tiliae flos source species.

石灰花传统上被用作药用植物。根据《欧洲药典》，只有三种species树属被认可为来源树种。然而，到目前为止，还没有方法使这三个物种和其他物种之间的鉴别椴树在欧洲发生的已经建立。还不清楚来源的物种之间从石灰花提取物的化学组成是否有所不同。在这里，我们描述了一个全面有效的UHPLC-DAD-MS / MS方法来区分五个最重要的椴基于从花朵中提取的提取物的植物化学分析得出的欧洲物种。在所分析的提取物中检测到42种酚类，并使用经过验证的方法对其中21种进行了定量。化学计量分析揭示了所研究物种之间的显着差异。基于其提取物的化学特征，我们提供了用于鉴定flo虫来源物种的二分法键。