Return to search

Temporal composition of total soluble phenolic content in Eucalyptus leaves in South Africa

In South Africa the genus, Eucalyptus plays an important role as a major economic component in the forest and mining sector. Unfortunately, this genus has problems due to damage by pests. The Eucalyptus snout beetle, Gonipterus scutellatus, feeds and defoliates the leaves of eucalypts. Plants produce secondary metabolites, which protects them against defoliation by insects and herbivores. This study focuses on the variations of total soluble phenolic content of nine Eucalyptus species between the species and within the species throughout the year. Total soluble phenols were quantified with the Folin-Ciocalteau reagent. There was a general increase in the concentration of total soluble phenols throughout the year. The content of total soluble phenols were generally higher compared to carbohydrates. This experiment needs to be done on a continuous basis so as to formulate a screening method for eucalypt species that are resistant to G. scutellatus. / Dissertation (M Inst Agrar (Sustainable Insect Management))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Zoology and Entomology / unrestricted

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:up/oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/24965
Date25 May 2005
CreatorsNtiyantiya, Sinovuyo
ContributorsDr P Govender, upetd@up.ac.za, Dr T Reigner
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeDissertation
Rights© 2004 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.

Page generated in 0.0142 seconds