© 1987 Heron Publishing—Victoria, Canada
Identification of two compounds correlated with lack of rooting capacity of chestnut cuttings
J. Vieitez (1), D. G. I. Kingston (2), A. Ballester (3, 4) and E. Vieitez (1)
1. Department of Plant Physiology, Faculty of Biology, Santiago de Compostela, Spain / 2. Department of Chemistry, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA / 3. Plant Physiology, CSIC, Apartado 122, 15080 Santiago de Compostela, Spain / Received April 1, 1987
Summary
Cuttings from mature chestnut (Castanea spp.) trees are very difficult to root, whereas juvenile or etiolated cuttings root easily. The HPLC chromatograms from mature
cuttings consistently showed two well-defined peaks that were absent from juvenile or etiolated cuttings. The compounds responsible
for these two peaks were isolated and identified as derivatives of ellagic acid, 3,3′,4-tri-O-methylellagic acid (compound 1) and 3,4,4′-tri-O-methylellagic acid (compound II). Compound I significantly inhibited rooting as measured by the bean test; a concentration
of 3.0 × 10–5 M caused a 32% inhibition in number of roots formed compared with controls grown in 10–5 M IAA. When compound I was mixed with an equal quantity of IAA, the rooting activity of the auxin was reduced by 31.5%. An
insufficient amount of compound II was available for the bean assay.
