STUDIES ON CHANGES IN CHLOROPHYLL CONTENTS IN LEAVES OF TREE FRUITS

摘要

An experiment was carried out during 1989-90 on chemical analysis for determining the total chlorophyll content and its two fractions chlorophyll a & chlorophyll b in leaves of four commercial varieties of mango namely Langra. Krishnbhog, Himsagar. Fazli and a wild variety Darjeeling wild. Leaves were collected from mature mango trees at two stages of leaf growth-immature and mature. In a mature stage, total chlorophyll was maximum (4.123 mg/g of fresh weight) in the variety Darjeeling wild and minimum in Fazli variety (1.965 mg/g of fresh weight). In respect of two fractions of chlorophyll a was highest in the Darjeeling wild (2.122 mg/g of fresh weight) and the lowest in the variety Fazli (1.071 mg/g of fresh weight). This pattern was maintained with the other fractions of chlorophyll though the level of this pigment was slightly less than that of the chlorophyll a in each variety. In the immature leaf in all the varieties, the levels of the chlorophylls were much less than those noted in the mature leaves. However, the relative proportions of chlorophyll were higher than those of chlorophyll a in all cases.