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A CHROMATOGRAPHIC STUDY OF THE PHENOLICS OF SPECIES OF LOTUS CLOSELY RELATED TO L. CORNICULATUS AND THEIR TAXONOMIC SIGNIFICANCE
Author(s) -
Harney Patricia M.,
Grant William F.
Publication year - 1964
Publication title -
american journal of botany
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.218
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1537-2197
pISSN - 0002-9122
DOI - 10.1002/j.1537-2197.1964.tb06680.x
Subject(s) - lotus corniculatus , biology , botany , ploidy , kaempferol , polyploid , lotus , quercetin , taxon , biochemistry , gene , antioxidant
The incidence of flavonoids and phenolic acids substantiates the reclassification of a number of diploid taxa formerly considered as varieties of the tetraploid species, L. corniculatus. Whereas leaves of L. corniculatus contained leucodelphinidin, quercetin, leucocyanidin, kaempferol, p ‐coumaric acid and ferulic acid, those of the diploid species, L. alpinus, L. japonicus, L. krylovii and L. schoelleri, lacked leucodelphinidin but contained sinapic acid which was rarely found in leaves of L. corniculatus. The leaves of L. filicaulis contained the same compounds as those of the aforementioned diploid species but lacked sinapic acid. Lotus tenuis and L. borbasii differed most from L. corniculatus in that their leaves possessed only kaempferol and ferulic acid. The morphological polymorphism evident in plants of L. corniculatus was not reflected in the flavonoid and phenolic acid content of this species. The data obtained lend support for the hypothesis of an allotetraploid origin for L. corniculatus. The phenolic content of the leaves of interspecific hybrids between diploid species was a summation of the phenolic residues found in the parental species. The same is true of the plants of an F 2 population of a cross between L. japonicus and L. filicaulis. The results indicate that phenolic compounds in the leaves of Lotus are inherited in a dominant fashion and that they may be used as species characteristics in systematic studies. Lotus caucasicus has been determined to be a tetraploid species with 24 somatic chromosomes.