Abstract
Seed, sprout and plant oils from soybean (Soja hispida), lupine (Lupinus mutabilis), sunflower (Helianthus annuus) and wheat (Triticum aestivum) were assayed for their tocochromanol content and composition. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence detection was used to determine tocopherols and tocotrienols of laboratory-extracted oils. In general, leaves of lupine, soja, and wheat with a high chlorophyll-a-content also were found to be rich of alpha-tocopherol; roots contained very little or no tocopherol. Contents of gamma-and delta-tocopherol in soja and lupine decreased during germination and growth, whereas the alpha-tocopherol concentration increases significantly. This evidence suggests that non-alpha-to-copherols might be methylated enzymatically to alpha-tocopherol. Tocochromanol pattern of wheat also changes characteristically in an analogous manner during plant development. Germ i nation of sunflower seeds also resulted in a conversion of beta-and gamma-tocopherols and in a slight decrease of the predominantly occurring alpha-tocopherol. In relation to the lipid content, the concentration of total tocopherols in oil plants increases significantly during growth. Possible implications for the biosynthesis of tocochromanols are discussed.
© 1946 – 2014: Verlag der Zeitschrift für Naturforschung
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.