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Brassinosteroids

1999; Springer Science+Business Media; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/978-3-7091-6394-8_1

2192-4309

G. Adam, Jürgen Schmidt, Bernd Schneider,

Phytochemical Studies and Bioactivities

It was in 1979 when GROVE et al. isolated from pollen of rape (Brassica napus) a highly active plant growth promoter, named it brassinolide and elucidated its structure as (22R,23R,24S)-2α,3α, 22,23-tetrahydroxy-24-methyl-B-homo-6a-oxa-5α-cholestan-6-one (1) by spectroscopic methods including X-ray analysis (1). The original structural features of this compound and its unique high biological activity at very low concentrations stimulated intense research activities in many laboratories. Such efforts were directed towards the search for similar compounds in the plant kingdom, their chemical synthesis, biochemistry and biological mode of action leading up to their practical application in agriculture and horticulture. As a result of this interdisciplinary and rapidly processing research, brassinosteroids can nowadays be regarded as a new class of plant hormones with ubiquitous occurrence in the plant kingdom. Especially, recent molecular biological studies demonstrated their essential role for normal plant growth and development. A series of reviews have been published (2–11). Whereas the first book on brassinosteroid research covers developments up to 1990 (12), two up-to-date publications about this topic have appeared very recently (13, 14). The present article covers the literature up to December 1998 with special consideration of phytochemical, analytical and biochemical aspects.