Keywords: 
• horticulture /
• chrysanthemum /
• petal /
• nutritional quality /
• principle component analysis

Abstract: To enrich edible cultivars of chrysanthemum（Dendranthema grandiflorum），nutritional composition of 20 cultivars was studied. Content of soluble sugars，soluble proteins，water，vitamin C，organic acid，coarse fiber，15 types of amino acids，and six types of mineral elements was determined in inflorescences of 17 ornamental cultivars and three commercially edible cultivars consisting of mid-sized flowers with a large number of florets per inflorescence. A principle component analysis was used to evaluate nutritional quality. Essential amino acids for humans（7 types），medical amino acids （8 types），and aroma-improving amino acids （4 types） were detected in the 20 cultivars with a range of content for soluble sugars of 47.7 － 84.4 gkg－1，soluble proteins of 4.3 － 14.4 gkg－1，vitamin C of 0.178 5 － 0.678 8 gkg－1，water of 83.72% － 91.02%，coarse fiber of 7.5 － 34.1 gkg－1，and organic acid of 0.7 － 4.4 gkg－1. Also found were zinc at 18 － 74 mgkg－1，iron at 118 － 1 144 mgkg－1，magnesium at 1.3 － 2.0 gkg－1，calcium at 2.5 － 6.8 gkg－1，sodium at 58 － 322 mgkg－1，and potassium at 20.1 － 42.7 gkg－1. For nutritional quality among the three commercial edible cultivars（BaohuatangyijingZifengmudanJingxingjiuying）， Jinxingjiuyin was significantly greater（P＜0.05） than the others. However，Xiangbinzi，an ornamental cultivar，had higher nutritional quality than Jinxingjiuyin；other ornamental cultivars，namelyDF-6 and Qiuyun also exhibited good nutritional quality. These ornamental cultivars are promising edible chrysanthemum cultivars.［Ch，6 tab. 16 ref.］