Mohammed Ibrahim Xin Du Manjree Agarwal Mohammed Ibrahim Xin Du Manjree Agarwal
Two modern rose varieties, Floribunda and Hybrid Tea, were used to analyze and
identify metabolic changes after foliar application with benzyladenine (BA). Volatile organic
compounds (VOCs) as metabolites were detected. Two pairs of doses of BA, at 11.16 and
17.87 mg/cm2
, and 7.17 and 12.26 mg/cm2 were applied to the foliage of Hybrid Tea
and Floribunda, respectively. Sampling time was optimized and treatment duration was
4 weeks. After treatment, the volatiles from the treated and untreated control roses were
extracted using headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) technology by three-phase fiber
50/30 µm divinylbenzene/carboxen/polydimethylsiloxane (DVB/CAR/PDMS) and analyzed by gas
chromatography (GC) coupled with a flame ionization detector (FID), and with mass spectrometry
(GC-MS).The results showed that BA and its dose rate led to metabolic changes of treated roses in
comparison with untreated controls. The number of VOCs extracted and detected from leaves, stem,
rhizosphere and whole plants from the two rose varieties at doses rate of 17.87 and 12.26 mg/cm2
were 43, 65, 40 and 68 compounds for each plant material, respectively, for both rose varieties.
Whilst the VOCs extracted and detected from both rose varieties for leaves, stem, rhizosphere and
whole plants were 38, 61, 34 and 66 compounds for each plant material, respectively. The results
demonstrate that some volatiles, such as 4-Heptyn-2-ol, Phenyl methyl ether and 3-Methyl-apopinene,
increased with increasing doses of BA; these compounds are aroma chemicals with a very powerful
smell. This study shows that BA treatments can have a significant effect on metabolite changes in
different rose tissues. This method could be applied to other floriculture plants.