Abstract:Water lily plants are rich in bioactive substances, and the tissues contain flavonoids and other components, which can be widely used in the food industry and the field of medicine and cosmetics. In this paper, 10 kinds of water lily petals were comprehensively analyzed for flower color, total flavonoids and total phenols content, water content, pH, and antioxidant activity of the extracts, etc. The results showed that the petals of the Nymphaea ‘Eldorado’ contained the most total flavonoids, 20.40 mg/g; the petals of the Nymphaea ‘Purple Joy’ contained the most total phenols, 31.22 mg/g; and the least in the Nymphaea ‘Galaxy’, 4.85 mg/g and 5.21 mg/g, respectively. Total flavonoids content showed significant positive correlation with brightness L* (R=0.652) and color phase b* (R=0.645) (P<0.05), and significant negative correlation with color phase a* (R=-0.733) (P<0.05). Flavonoids contained in the petals of the 10 water lily species did not have any significant correlation with pH and water content. In the DPPH method, the Nymphaea ‘Red Flare’ petals flavonoid extract showed the best scavenging ability, with an EC50 of (2.51±0.19) μg/mL; the Nymphaea ‘Doris Holt’ showed better performance, with an EC50 of (4.51±0.32) μg/mL, and the scavenging ability was stronger than that of VC, while the scavenging ability of the remaining species" petal flavonoid extracts was weaker than that of VC. In the ABTS method, the scavenging ability of the Nymphaea ‘Zi Beike’ petals flavonoid extract showed the best performance, with EC50 of (24.31±0.52) μg/mL, and it also showed especially outstanding performance in the FRAP method, but the scavenging ability of each variety of waterlily was weaker than that of VC. In the comprehensive analysis, the pH, total flavonoids, total phenols content and antioxidant activity of the petals of different varieties of waterlily varied considerably. Most of the waterlily petal contain high flavonoid content, indicating good antioxidant activity, and thus have the potential for further development as a good natural antioxidant.