ISHS Acta Horticulturae 381: International Symposium on Natural Phenols in Plant Resistance
THE PHYSIOLOGICAL ROLE OF CHLOROGENIC ACID DURING DEVELOPMENT OF COFFEE SEEDLINGS |
| Authors: | Rob J. Aerts, Thomas W. Baumann |
| Keywords: | chlorogenic acid, caffeine, seedling, Coffea arabica |
| Abstract:
Ripe coffee seeds (Coffea arabica L.) contain large quantities of the alkaloid caffeine and the depside chlorogenic acid (5–O-caffeoyl-quinic acid). Directly after germination, both compounds were recovered mainly in the seed coat-enclosed cotyledons of coffee seedlings. During the first ten weeks of seedling development, the caffeine content in the cotyledons changed hardly. The chlorogenic acid content in the cotyledons, however, decreased sharply during development. The amount of disappeared chlorogenic acid was not recovered in the hypocotyl and root of the seedling. The decrease in chlorogenic acid content occurred during development and unfolding of the cotyledons. The disappearance of chlorogenic acid coincided with an increase in the amount of cell wall-bound phenolic polymers in cotyledons, which could be extracted after thioglycolic acid derivatization. In the cotyledons, phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) activity was hardly detectable during development. These results suggest that the chlorogenic acid stored in coffee seeds is used for the deposition of phenolic polymers in cell walls of cotyledons during expansion. | |
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