PHENOLIC COMPOUNDS AS MARKERS FOR ALGERIAN CULTIVARS OF THE DATE PALM PHOENIX DACTYLIFERA L.

S. Ouafi, N. Bounaga
The objective of this research was to make an inventory of the cultivars of the Phoenix dactylifera L. by searching biochemical-markers. Fifty individuals which belong to 9 cultivated palm trees were analysed for their flavonoid content. The description of HPLC profiles of glycosyl flavones and glycosyl flavonols initially enabled us in the first time to identify 15 compounds. The structural analysis showed that flavonic aglycones are specific markers to the date palm. The second time we established that the diversity of these flavonic glycosides, considered as markers, permits to distinguish two sets of cultivated date palm: some are well homogenous (‘Ahartane’, ‘Aghamu’) others not (‘Deglet nour’, ‘Takerbucht’). The second set corresponds to cultivars submitted to intensive cultivation and phenotypical selection by date palm farmers. We show a negative correlation between the content of flavones and the degree of lignification in the date palm which suggests that the process of lignification is more rapid in resistant cultivars; we can say that resistance to Bayoud is constitutive. Moreover, we made a test of conformity between the adults and vitro-plants of ‘Feggous’ using the flavonic content. A second test was conducted between male and female plants of two cultivars, ‘Deglet Nour’ and ‘Degla Beida’, using the same compounds. We revealed that flavonoids cannot constitute chemical markers related to the sex; there is conformity between the male and female palm trees of the same cultivar.
Ouafi, S. and Bounaga, N. (2010). PHENOLIC COMPOUNDS AS MARKERS FOR ALGERIAN CULTIVARS OF THE DATE PALM PHOENIX DACTYLIFERA L.. Acta Hortic. 882, 321-327
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2010.882.36
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2010.882.36
palm tree, flavonoid content, HPLC profiles, conformity
English

Acta Horticulturae