Humic acids with C14

Abstract

1. Leaves of sugar-beet (Beta saccharifera), which had assimilated active carbon dioxide C14O2, were subjected to the process of humification in soil. After three to five months of humification the dried soil was extracted with ether-alcohol, then with sodium or potassium hydroxide; the humic acids were separated from fulvic acids with hydrochloric acid. All fractions were radioactive. 2. Maize plants (Zea mays) grown in diluted Knop's solution with the addition of active humic acid showed radioactivity in the roots and leaves. There was, however, a marked difference between the roots and the leaves. While the activity of the roots after two to twelve days was about 100 to 200 cpm., that of the leaves was about 20 cpm. as calculated for one plant, or about 300 cpm./10 g. for roots and at the limits of measurement for leaves. 3. When a drop of solution and suspension of active humic acid was placed on the lower surface of the first leaf, it spread very little even in this leaf; the activity of the second and third leaves was at the limits of measurement after five days; the same applies to the roots. 4. Autoradiograms were fully in keeping with the results obtained with the counter. Roots were clearly marked and more or less intensely, while the leaves did not appear or appeared only as faint shadows. 5. These experiments do not resolve the question of whether unchanged humic acid penetrates into the cells. It can only be concluded, on the basis of these experiments, that if radioactive humic acid is added to water or to nutrient solution, radioactivity appears in the roots and later weakly in the leaves. If it is assumed that the activity measured in the plant organs was caused by humic acid applied direct, this means that it penetrates into the plant slowly, it is not accumulated and spreads throughout the plant slowly from the roots.