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Two widely applied spectrophotometric assays based on aluminium complex formation used for determination of total flavonoid content in food or medicinal plant samples were examined for several compounds from different classes of flavonoid family. The method which involves the measurement at 410–430 nm after addition of AlCl3 solution is selective only for flavonols and flavones luteolin. The procedure in the presence of NaNO2 in alkaline medium seems to be specific for rutin, luteolin and catechins, but also phenolic acids exhibit considerable absorbance at 510 nm. Application of both procedures to natural samples gave different order in terms of their flavonoid content. Thus, the expression “total flavonoid” content is not adequate as the results of both methods are dependent on the structure of the individual flavonoids present.
Pękal et al. (2014) studied this question.