CAROTENOIDS IN PLANTS 



lycopene in traces as well as greater amounts of p-carotene and torulene. 

 The amounts these workers obtained from 1 g. of dry material were : 



2,900 (i,g. of torularhodin 

 143 {xg. of torulene 

 10 (xg. of p- carotene. 



Neither Fink and Zenger * ^ nor Bonner, Sandoval, Tang and Zech- 

 meister*^ could, however, detect the acidic pigment in more than 

 minute amounts in their cultures of R. rubra. Bonner et al.y who 

 examined a number of mutant strains of R. rubra, always found 

 torulene as the main pigment associated with smaller amounts of p- 

 and y-carotene ; two unidentified pigments first thought to be possibly 

 p-carotene-5 : 6, 5' : 6'-diepoxide * ^ and auroxanthin * * but now known 

 to be neurosporene and ^-carotene, ^ ' as well as the reduced carotenoid 

 phytofluene were also detected. For spectroscopic data on torulene and 

 torularhodin see Table 15 and Fig. 17. 



* Pigments first reported in other organisms but also present in fungi are 

 not recorded here. 



REFERENCES TO TABLE 15. 



1. Lederer, E. (1938), Bull. Soc. Chim. Biol., 20, 611. 



2. Karrer, p., and Rutschmann, J. (1946), Helv. Chim. Acta, 29, 355. 



3. Haxo, F. (1949), Arch. Biochem., 20, 400. 



4. Haxo, F. (1950), Bot. Gaz., 112, 228. 



The report that R. glutinis*^ has a vitamin A activity of 5-10 i.u. 

 per gram of dry weight, is consistent with the presence of [3-carotene 

 in similar amounts to those reported for R, torula. 



107 



