| Abstract: | Seed samples of Lolium temulentum L. were harvested at variousstages of maturity and subjected to successive cold- and hot-waterextractions. These extracts were then fractionated by gel-filtrationand the changes in the carbohydrate elution pattern with increasingseed maturity were characterized. Extracts of seeds from earlyharvests contained only free sugars, but the mean chain-lengthincreased with maturity. The hot-water fraction contained nosalient features until 17 days after anthesis but, after thispoint, a completely excluded, high-molecular-weight polysaccharideaccumulated. Infiltration studies using I4C-sucrose and detached seeds showedthat sugar was readily incorporated into polysaccharide, butthat the degree of uptake was directly proportional to the developmentalstage of the seed at the time of detachment. Hydrolysis dataon the various components are given and the results are discussedin terms of their practical significance. |
