Methods for quantitative determination of ethylene in aqueous solutions for biological studies

Abstract. In many plant physiological studies, quantitative determination of ethylene in aqueous solutions is necessary. We describe two methods for such measurements based on vacuum extraction, or on stripping ethylene from solution with the carrier gas of a gas chromatograph. The gas-stripping technique is limited by the small sample volumes that can be used, whereas the vacuum extraction technique can accommodate much larger volumes and is useful when the ethylene concentration in the solution is very low. The use of these techniques will facilitate the treatment of submerged plant tissues with known amounts of ethylene, and also the quantitative determination of ethylene from tissues grown in either static or continuous flow liquid cultures.