Gas-Liquid Chromatographic Isolation of Cytokinins from Natural Sources

Abstract

Gas-liquid chromatographic retention times for 20 purines or purine nucleosides, 14 of which are highly active cytokinins, are reported. With one exception, all of the naturally occurring cytokinins are separated.Ethyl acetate extraction of yeast transfer RNA hydrolysates and of culture filtrates of Agrobacterium tumefaciens gave sufficient concentration of the naturally occurring cytokinins for immediate gas-liquid chromatography. This procedure permitted the detection of 6-(3-methyl-2-butenylamino)-9-beta, d-ribofuranosylpurine in yeast transfer RNA extracts. An active cytokinin was isolated from A. tumefaciens culture filtrates and was tentatively identified as 6-(3-methyl-2-butenylamino)purine.