Investigations on Carotenoids in Embryophyta. I. Bryophyta

The author has investigated the carotenoids in 4 Hepaticae and 22 Musci. By means of column and thin-layer chromatography, the following carot- enoids were found to be present: lycopene, a-carotene, p-carotene, y-carotene, f-carotene epoxide, P-carotene diepoxide, /P-cryptoxanthin, lutein, lutein epoxide, zeaxanthin, antheraxanthin, neoxanthin, violaxanthin, aurochrome, auroxanthin, mutatochrome, mutatoxanthin and ketocarotenoid. The carotenoids which occurred most frequently in the moss species investigated were a-carotene, P-carotene, /P-cryptoxanthin, f-carotene epoxide, lutein and ze- axanthin. The total carotenoid content ranged from 0.989 to 39.115 ag/g fresh weight. Plants belonging to the Embryophyta, commonly termed "higher plants," include bryo- phytes, pteridophytes and seed plants. Most investigations of carotenoids have dealt with lower plants, particularly algae. Fewer studies have been made on the carotenoids of higher plants, and as regards the bryophytes, in particular, there are few papers on the subject of carotenoid content (Suire, 1975). The first paper was that of Kohl (1902) who reported the presence of carotenoids in mosses without, however, giving details of the types of carotenoids found. Later, Douin (1956, 1958) in studies on Bryales, Andreales and Sphagnales found, in addition to a- and p-carotene, lutein and its derivative, lutein- 5,6-epoxide. In 1957 Freeland analyzed the carotenoid content in 5 species of bryophytes and reported finding P-cryptoxanthin, zeaxanthin, violaxanthin and neoxanthin, as well as the carotenoids discovered by Douin. Freeland drew attention to the differences in the carotenoid content of gametophytes and sporophytes. Other workers who have studied carotenoids in bryophytes are Bendz et al. (1968), Herrmann (1968), Lichtenthaler (1968), Czeczuga (1972, 1978a), Schmidt-Stohn (1977) and Karunen and Ihantola (1977). The in- vestigations of these authors have revealed the presence of auroxanthin, antheraxanthin, mutatoxanthin, lycophyll and certain ketocarotenoids in addition to the carotenoids men- tioned above. The carotenoid content of certain Hepaticae were analyzed by Strain (1958), Taylor et al. (1972) and others (see Suire, 1975).