Skip to main content
ARS Home » Plains Area » Fargo, North Dakota » Edward T. Schafer Agricultural Research Center » Sunflower and Plant Biology Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #58936
Title: DIFFERENTIATION OF HELIANTHUS SPECIES BY THIN-LAYER CHROMATOGRAPHY OF LEAF EXTRACTS

Author
item DEDIO, WALTER - AGRICULTURE CANADA
item Seiler, Gerald

Submitted to: Helia
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/15/1995
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Sunflower plants produce many biochemical products which are the result metabolic processes. Some of these products are produced in direct response to certain events such as environmental stress. The compounds can be distributed in the various organs of the plant. Sunflower produces a high level of phenolic compounds many of which are organic acids. Phenolic concentration high in the leaves. This compound has been used in other plants to fingerprint a particular species. This would provide additional information to morphological characteristics of the species. A chemical techniques called thin-layer chromatography was used to see if several wild species and cultivated lines of sunflower could be identified by their unique phenolic compounds. Some wild species appear to have distinctive compounds unique to them. The cultivated lines did not. The technique may also be useful in wild and cultivated crosses where one or the other parent is not known. Additional evaluation of other populations of wild species and lines will need to enhance the process. Thin-layer chromatography can also be used as a quick method to detect desirable and undesirable phenolic compounds among species and interspecific hybrids.

Technical Abstract: The phenolic compounds, particularly in the leaves have often been investigated in various plant species as possible sources of markers or as a tool in grouping species into various taxa. Thin-layer chromatography is a quick technique where several samples can be chromatographed at the same time for phenolic compounds. This technique was used to investigate the potential of the technique for differentiating Helianthus lines and wild species. Leaf extracts from 17 H. annuus lines and 18 wild Helianthus species were analyzed by thin- layer chromatography with cellulose-coated plates for variation in phenolic compounds. There were no qualitative variation among the cultivated lines. In the wild species, H. tuberosus and H. laciniatus frequently showed yellow fluorescing compounds, probably a flavornoid compounds, while the two H. occidentials populations are one H. mollis population were distinguished by a pale blue fluorescing phenolic compound. Thin-layer chromatography can be used as a quick method to screen for desirable and undesirable phenolic compounds among the species and interspecific hybrids. Quantitative variation of chlorogenic acid was observed among the species suggesting that it may be possible to select germplasm with reduced levels of the phenolic compound.