Plant constituents

Abstract

There would be no purpose for discussing the changes in plant constituents of a dying plant or one suffering from toxic symptoms caused by herdicides, but changes caused by subherbicidal levels of the s-triazine herbicides have been enthusiastically reported for over a decade. Much excitement centered around the possibility of using low levels of these herbicides to increase both the yield and the protein content in many crops and, indeed, several different patents have even been granted for this use (Asahi Chem. Ind. Co. Ltd. 1967, Battelle Dev. Corp. 1968, Standard Oil Co. 1968, Nippon Kayaku KK 1969, and Moldav Seed Select Inst. 1972). In spite of nearly a dozen years of research into the reasons for these subtle changes in plant composition from sublethal additions of s-triazines, we still can only speculate about the nature of why they occur. Some of the more likely explanations involve changes in the plants energy balance, changes in the water balance, or effects on hormones and enzymes which are discussed in later sections.