CHARACTERIZATION OF RHODODENDRON-SIMSII PLANCH CULTIVARS BY FLAVONOID AND ISOENZYME MARKERS

Chemotaxonomy of commercial cultivars of Rhododendron simsii Planch. (Azalea indica L.) as an adjunct to descriptive morphological and physiological methods has been applied to vegetative shoots. Flavonoid chemical markers of the bark were qualitatively separated and determined by classical chromatographic procedures. The cultivars could be classified into 3 groups, based either on the presence or absence of 5-O-methyl-kaempferol and (or) azaleatin. A procedure was developed to extract protein and active enzymes from the shoot-tips. They were run on polyacrylamide gels and stained for total protein, peroxidase and esterase isoenzymes. Only the esterase isoenzymes were sufficiently polymorphic to distinguish the cultivars on the basis of the 2 combined systems. © 1979.