Abstract
Summary Significant proportions of the monoterpenes and of 2-phenylethanol in the petals of sixteen Rosa species and cultivars were bonded as β-D-glucosides. Conjugate-formation was greatest (10 to 43% of total alcohol content) in partially-opened flowerheads in all examples, but the kinetics of labelling of free alcohols and β-glucosides by exogenous [14C]-labelled mevalonate and phenylalanine were complex and revealed no obvious precursor - product relationships. Cell-free extracts of several species and of cell cultures derived therefrom possessed UDP-dependent glycosyl transferase activities towards the free alcohols; no evidence could be adduced for a previously-suggested biosynthetic sequence, whereby the β-glucosides (derived directly from the corresponding pyrophosphates) were obligatory precursors of the free alcohols. During the course of this work, the aglycone-specificities of several β-D-glucohydrolases towards monoterpenyl-β-D-glucosides possessing a wide range of skeletal-types were determined, and enzymatic assays for such glucosides in plant material in general were established.
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