Relation of Manganese to the Carotene and Vitamin Content of Growing Crop Plants

114 Pages·07.873 MB·English

by  Burger, Othmar Joseph

PURDUE UNIVERSITY
THIS IS TO CERTIFY THAT THE THESIS PREPARED UNDER MY SUPERVISION
OTHMAR JOSEPH BURGER
BY
RELATION OF. MANGANESE TO THE CAROTENE
en titled
AND VITAMIN CONTENT OF GROWING CROP PLANTS
COMPLIES WITH THE UNIVERSITY REGULATIONS ON GRADUATION THESES
AND IS APPROVED BY ME AS FULFILLING THIS PART OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Professor in Charge of Thesis
H eap of School, oh Department
TO THE LIBRARIAN:-----
THIS THESIS IS NOT TO BE REGARDED AS CONFIDENTIAL
GRAD. SCHOOL FORM O—3-40—1M

RELATION OP MANGANESE TO THE CAROTENE AND VITAMIN CONTENT
OF GROWING CROP PLANTS
A Thes is
Submitted to the Faculty
of
Purdue University
by
Othmar Joseph Burger
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
of
Doctor of Philosophy
June, 1950
ProQuest Number: 27714095
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author expresses his appreciation and gratefulness
to Dr. S. M. Hauge, his major professor, for his interest,
encouragement, and assistance in this work. He is indebted
to Dr. F. W. Quackenbush, and Dr. D. M. Doty for their help
and guidance. Grateful acknowledgment is made of the great
assistance of A . E. Purcell and Katharine Hivon during
sampling of the material and to G. Paul Lehman for clima-
tological data.
The author expresses his appreciation to Dr. B. R .
Bertramson. Dr. A. J. Ohlrogge, Dr. H. H. Kramer, Dr. G. 0.
Mott, Prof. S. R. Miles and Glen Hemstock of the Agronomy
Department for their advice and help.
The author is grateful to the Tennessee Corporation,
Atlanta, Georgia, for the financial aid making possible the
fellowship to study this problem. For their encouragement
and interest, the author is indebted to Dr. J. K. Plummer,
Director of the Products Division of the Tennessee Corpora­
tion and Mr. J. Bergeaux. Agronomist for the Tennessee
Manganese Corporation.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ABSTRACT .................................................. i
I. INTRODUCTION ........................................ 1
II. LITERATURE R E V I E W ....................................2
III. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE.............................. 11
A. Coopération.................................... 11
B. Location of P l o t s ..................... 11
C. Minor Element Fertilizers . . . * ............ 13
D . Soil Applications..............................15
E . Spray Applications ............................ 20
F. Sampling .................................... .20
G. Methods of Chemical Analysis.......... 21
1. Moisture................................. 21
2. Carotene..................................21
3. Carotene Lipoxidase Activity .......... 21
4. P r o t e i n ..................................21
5. C h o l i n e ..................................21
6. Tocopherol ......................... 21
7. Leaf-Stern Ratios.........................22
H. Climatological D a t a ........................... 22
I. Statistical Analysis . . . . . 27
IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS........................ 27
A. Effect of Manganese upon the Carotene Content
of Plant Tissues . . . . . 27
1. Soybeans................. 27
2. C o r n ...................................... 41
Page
3. W h e a t .....................................44
4. O a t s .......................................44
B. Effect of Manganese on the Activity of the
Carotene-Destroying Enzyme . . . . . . . . . 44
1. Soybeans.................................. 44
2. C o r n .......................... 47
3. W h e a t .....................................47
4. O a t s ......................................47
C. Effect of Manganese on the Protein Content . . 49
1. Soybeans . . . . . . 49
2. O a t s .......................................53
D. Effect of Manganese on the Choline Content . . 53
1. Soybeans.................................. 53
E . Effect of Manganese on the Tocopherol Content. 53
1. Soybeans................... 53
P. Effect of Manganese on the Leaf-Stern Ratios
of P l a n t s ..................................58
1. Soybeans.................................. 58
2. W h e a t .................................... 65
Gr. Effect of Manganese upon Anatomical
Characteristics.............................. 65
1. Soybeans...................... 65
2. Oats ................. 69
V. DISCUSSION........................................ 69
VI. S U M M A R Y ...........................................73
VII. BIBLIOGRAPHY...................................... 76
LISTS OF TABLES AND FIG-UBES
List of Tables
Table Page
1. Effect of manganese upon the carotene content of
soybean leaves. Test plot on Maumee loam.
Walkerton, Indiana, 1946 12
2. Location of wheat experiments, soil reaction and
description of treatments, 1948 . . . . . . . . 14
3. Fertilization treatments on soybeans plots at
Nev/land, Indiana on Emil Savage Farm, 1947 . . 16
4. Fertilization treatments on corn plots at Pinney-
Purdue Farm, Valparaiso, Indiana, 1947 . . . . 17
5. Fertilizer treatments on soybean plots, Baxter
Blosser Farm, Winamac, Indiana, 1948 18
6. Fertilization treatments on soybean plots on Place
Farm, Walkerton, Indiana, 1949. Replicated
four t i m e s ...................................... 19
7. Rainfall data for the minor element field experi­
ment, Blosser Farm, Winamac, Indiana, 1948 . . 23
8. Temperature data for the minor element field ex­
periment, Blosser Farm, Winamac, Indiana, 1948. 24
9. Rainfall data for the manganese field experiment.
Place Farm, Walkerton, Indiana, 1949 25
10. Temperature data for the manganese sulfate field
experiment. Place Farm, Walkerton, Indiana,, 1949 26
11. Influence of minor element fertilization on the
carotene content and the activity of the
carotene-destroying enzyme of soybean leaves,
1947. Average of three replicates . . : . . . 29
12. Influence of minor element treatment on the caro­
tene content and enzyme activity in soybean
leaves, Blosser Farm, Winamac, Indiana, 1948.
Average of four replicates .............. 30
13. Influence of minor element treatments on the caro­
tene content and enzyme activity in soybean
stems, Blosser Farm, Winamac, Indiana, 1948.
Average of four replicates.....................31
Table Page
14. Influence of minor element fertilization on the
carotene content of soybeans. Blosser Farm,
Winamac, Indiana, 1948. Average of four
replicates ................................32
15. Influence of manganese on the carotene content and
enzyme activity in soybean leaves. Place Farm,
Walkerton, Indiana, 1949. Average of four
replicates.......................... 36
16. Influence of manganese on the carotene content in
soybean stems, Place Farm, Walkerton, Indiana,
1949. Average of four replicates................37
17. Influence of manganese on the carotene content of
soybeans. Place Farm, Walkerton, Indiana, 1949.
Average of four replicates...................... 39
18. Influence of minor element fertilization on the
carotene content and the activity of the caro­
tene destroying enzyme of corn leaves, Pinney-
Purdue Farm, Valparaiso, Indiana, 1947. One
replicate..................................... 43
19 . Carotene content, per cent carotene destroyed dur­
ing incubation and leaf-s tern ratio of wheat
plants given treatments as listed, located on
the Wynkoff, Lewis, and Blosser Farms, respec­
tively, 1948. One replicate on each location . 45
20. Influence of manganese on weight, carotene content,
and crude protein content of Clinton oats,
Hayter Farm, Walkerton, Indiana, 1949. Average
of three replicates .......................... 46
.
21 Influence of manganese on the protein content in
soybean leaves and stems. Place Farm, Walkerton,
Indiana, 1949. Average of four replicates . . 50
22. Effect on manganese on the choline content of soy­
bean leaves and stems, Place Farm, Walkerton,
Indiana, 1949. Average of four replicates . . 55
23. Effect of manganese on the tocopherol content of
soybean leaves. Place Farm, Walkerton, Indiana,
1949. Based on composite of four replicates. . 59
24. Influence of minor element treatments on the leaf-
stern ratio of soybean, Blosser Farm, Winamac,
Indiana, 1948. Average of four replicates . . 61
Table Pag
25. Effect of manganese on ttie leaf-stern ratio of soy­
beans , Place Farm, Walkerton, Indiana, 1949.
Average of four replicates..................... 62
26. Effect of manganese on several anatomical charac­
ters of typical soybean plants of each, of the
four treatments. Sampled at termination of
experiment, August 9, 1949. Place Farm,
Walkerton, I n d i a n a ............... 68
List of Figures
Figure Pag
1. Influence of manganese sulfate and copper sulfate
on the carotene content of soybean leaves,
1948 53
2. Influence of manganese sulfate and copper sulfate
on the carotene content of soybean plants,1948. 35
3. Influence of manganese sulfate on the carotene
content of soybean leaves, 1949 ........ 38
4. Influence of manganese sulfate on the carotene
content of soybeans plants, 1949 ........ .. . 40
5. Influence of manganese sulfate on the carotene
content of soybean stems, 1949 42
6. Influence of manganese sulfate on the activity of
the carotene-destroying enzyme in soybean
leaves, 1949 48
7. Influence of manganese sulfate on the protein con­
tent of soybean leaves, 1949 51
8. Influence of manganese sulfate on the protein con­
tent of soybean stems, 1949 ............. 52
9. Normal and manganese deficient Clinton oats which
were grown on Maumee loam and sampled on May
25, 1949 54
10. Influence of manganese sulfate on the choline con­
tent of soybean leaves, 1949 56