VIEW ARTICLE

Extractable Phenols in Clear, Discolored, and Decayed Woody Tissues and Bark of Sugar Maple and Red Maple. Terry A. Tattar, Former Graduate Student, New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station, Department of Botany, University of New Hampshire, Durham 03824, Present address of senior author: Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry, Portsmouth, New Hampshire 03824; A. E. Rich, Plant Pathologist, New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station, Department of Botany, University of New Hampshire, Durham 03824. Phytopathology 63:167-169. Accepted for publication 18 August 1972. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-63-167.

Ethyl acetate-soluble fractions were prepared from hot water extracts of 10-g samples of clear, discolored, and decayed tissue of sugar maple, Acer saccharum, and red maple, A. rubrum. Extracts were chromatographed in two dimension cellulose thin-layer chromatography plates with butanol:acetic acid:water (6:1:2) and 7% acetic acid:0.03% sodium acetate. Total phenols were determined by the Folin-Ciocalteu method on methanol extracts of clear red maple tissue. Gallic acid and catechin were identified as the major phenols in clear tissue of both red maple and sugar maple. These phenols were absent from discolored and decayed tissue. Total phenols in clear red maple woody tissues were the same at the cambium and at the pith. The processes of discoloration and decay result in decreases in extractable phenols confined to clear unaffected tissue. The low level of phenols in discolored wood may permit the growth of decay fungi unable to grow at the phenol concentration occurring in clear tissue.