[Objective] The color is one of the important factor for commercial value of edible mushroom. Pleurotus cornucopiae is edible mushroom, naturally distributed in the northern part of Japan. Due to its beautiful yellowish color, P. cornucopiae is sometimes called as “Golden-Shimeji”. The unique flavor of this mushroom also help to enhacement its commercial value and the consumption of this mushroom has gradually increased. The yellow color of this mushroom is resistant against high temperature because the color is not diminished after deep-frying. These facts suggest that the structure and biosynthesis of this yellow color is very interesting. However, the report concerning about these profiles are none at all. In the present study, we tried to isolate yellow pigment from P. cornucopiae fruit body and some properties of the pigments were also investigated. [Methods and Results] The fruit body of P. cornucopiae was kindly given from Tanaka Machinery Corporation and kept in the freezer (-20°C) until use. The fruit body was homogenized with twice amount of ice cold distilled water with a mixer and subsequently filtered to be crude pigment solution. According to the result of ultra filtration by CentriPrep YM-10, molecular weight of the pigment was under 10,000. The resultant filtrate of YM-10 was concentrated by lyophilization and subsequently subjected to size exclusion chromatography (SEC) by Sephadex LH-20. Two different pigment fractions, brown and yellow, were obtained from SEC separation. According to the retention time of HPLC analysis with TSKgel G2500PWXL, the molecular weights of these two pigments are larger than size exclusion limit (Ca. 5,000). Moreover, detectable spot with ninhydrin reagent on thin layer chromatography (TLC) analysis suggest that these pigments are guessed as peptide compounds. In addition, no color changes were observed after heating for 20 min at 100℃.

황색 꽃의 압화 후의 변색의 원인이 무엇인지를 모색하기 위해 나리, 온시디움, 장미, 튤립, 금어초, 카네 이션, 프리지아, 칼라, 거베라, 해바라기와 라넌큘러스 황색 절화 11종을 식물재료로 사용하였다. 이들 식물 재료의 꽃잎의 특성과 화색소를 분석하고 압화 후의 변색 정도와의 상호 관련성을 검토하였다. 꽃잎 두께, 꽃잎의 장폭비, 그리고 꽃잎의 수분함량은 압화의 변색 에 크게 영향을 미치지 않았다. 카로티노이드에 의해 황색이 발현되는 종은 나리, 온시디움, 장미와 튤립이 었으며, 플라보노이드에 의해 황색이 발현되는 종은 금 어초, 카네이션, 프리지아와 칼라였으며, 카로티노이드 와 플라보노이드가 공존하면서 황색이 발현되는 종은 거베라, 해바라기와 라넌큘러스였다. 카로티노이드가 단 독이거나 플라보노이드와 공존하거나 상관없이 카로티노이드에 의해 황색이 발현되는 경우는 압화의 변색 정도가 심했다. 그러나 플라보노이드에 의해 황색이 발 현되는 종은 거의 변색 되지 않았다. 암처리 한 압화 는 거의 변색되지 않았으나 광처리 한 것은 변색의 정도가 심했다.