Nomenclature of Chemical Plant Regulators

In 1951, K. V. Thimann, in his capacity as President of the American Society of Plant Physiologists, appointed a committee "to consider and propose a uniform nomenclature on growth substances." The Committee consulted, on an international basis, over 200 fellow scientists with interest in chemical regulation and in nomenclature, and asked for their collaboration in the project through an expression of their views. The participation was general and most gratifying, involving considerable free discussion. The reactions and suggestions of the majority opinion have been incorporated in the committee's recommendations. Accordingly, the proposed nomenclature is necessarily one of compromise. Yet it is simple and necessitates a minimum of reorientation of thought, and also allows for expansion in the future. The idea of artificial regulation of plant physiological processes by means of chemicals is a corollary to the concept of phytohormones which involves the regulation of plant physiological processes by naturally occurring regulators. The latter relates one organ to another in the plant. It follows therefore that the nomenclature on regulators is primarily applicable to multicellular plants.