Comparative analysis of phenolic compounds in two samples of Rosa damascena by HPLC.

Rosa damascena Mill. (Rosaceae) commonly known as Damask rose is widely grown in Kashan and Tabriz of Iran which has different therapeutic indications among Iranian traditional medicine practitioners. R. damascena is a rich source of phenolic compounds responsible for its medicinal properties. The objective of this study was to quantify the phenolic compounds present in R. damascena samples. The analytical separation and determination of phenolic compounds were performed using reversed phase HPLC with UV detector. Based on the results obtained throughout this study total phenolic and total flavonoid contents of sample from Tabriz (217.728 ± 0.13 and 22.8 ± 0.18 mg CE/g, respectively) were significantly higher than Kashan (134.568 ± 0.11 and 15.84 ± 0.23 mg CE/g respectively). Also phenolic compounds including gallic acid, syringic acid and quercetin were detected in both samples. The most abundant phenolic compound was gallic acid with amounts of 118.213 mg/g in Tabriz and 86.562 mg/g in Kashan samples (p < 0.05) but there was not any significant difference between two samples in the case of quercetin and syringic acid. The present study represents differences in total phenolics and gallic acid between two studied samples which might be implicated in different antioxidant activity and therapeutic applications of R. damascena from Tabriz and Kashan.