SUCCINIC ACID CONTENT OF THE COTTON PLANT

Abstract

oped that 14 to 50% of the total organic acids in various tissues were reported, as is customary, as acids, i.e., acids other than citric, malic and oxalic. This paper presents data on the concentration of succinic acid in the same or similar tissues. Materials and methods Succinic acid was determined on new samples of cotton flowers and seed, otherwise the tissue samples were those used in the previous investigations for the measurement of citric, malic, oxalic, unidentified, and total organic acids. The succinic acid content of the tissues was determined by the method of Pucher and Vickery (3), using duplicate 1-gram, oven-dried samples. The determinations of citric, malic, oxalic, and total organic acids were by the methods of Pucher et al. (5, ?). Results and discussion Succinic acid, table I, on the basis of dry weight, was found to be present in the cotton plant in successively lower concentrations in the leaves, bolls, flowers, seed kernels, petioles, stems, and roots. Although relatively large differences are shown in the concentration of succinic acid between some tissues, the leaves and roots for example, succinic acid was found to comprise only a small part of the dry weight of any of this plant material. Likewise, as shown in table I, its contribution to the total organic acidity of the several tissues approached 10% only in the instances of seed and young bolls; in other tissues it constituted less than 5% of the total organic acids. The data are of value in that they delimit the extent to which succinic acid can be turned to in efforts at accounting for the organic acids in the unidentified group. The results obtained, table I, show that succinic acid constitutes an appreciable part of the previously unidentified acids occurring in the leaves (17%), 13-day bolls (20%) and mature seed kernels ? Published with the approval of the Director of the Texas Agricultural Experiment