Quantitative and qualitative analysis of alkaloids composition in the seeds of a white lupin (Lupinus albus L.) collection

White lupin (Lupinus albus L.) has unexploited potential as a crop plant due to its high seed yield as well as protein and oil content in seeds. Well-characterized collections of gene resources are very important for breeding as a source of genetic variation. This paper presents the results of analyses for total content and qualitative composition of alkaloids in seeds of 367 L. albus accessions from the Polish Genebank. Accessions were divided into four classes of origin: wild collected material, land races, breeding lines, and cultivars. Apart from the expected broad variation as well as strong differentiation in the alkaloid content, a clear influence of domestication was observed. This was shown as an apparent decrease in the alkaloid content in breeding lines and cultivars classes. The total alkaloid content varies from 0.02 to 12.73% of the seed dry weight. Six major alkaloids (abundance >1%) were revealed: lupanine (28.22–94.49%, mean 76.06% in total content), 13-hydroxylupanine (0.10–32.78%, mean 8.23%), multiflorine (0.00–21.67%, mean 5.52%), albine (0.00–18.55%, mean 4.48%), angustifoline (0.24–12.14%, mean 2.07%), 11,12-seco-12,13-didehydromultiflorine (0.00–12.28%, mean 1.74%). Owing to its abundance, lupanine was found to be the most closely correlated to the total alkaloid content.