CHANGES IN CARBOHYDRATE-COMPOSITION OF SEEDS OF LITCHI-CHINENSIS SONNDURING MATURATION

The accumulation of starch and total sugar. mainly as sucrose, is a fe ature of seeds of the litchi cultivars 'Deshi' and 'Kasba' up to the f ully ripe stage of fruits. The precocious loss of food reserves, as ev idenced by a decline in starch content in over-mature seeds of senesci ng fruits, may be detrimental to loss of seed viability. Kinetin appli cation leads to low contents of starch, sugar and lactic acid. This in dicates that starch synthesis is possibly slowed down due to non-avail ability of sugars resulting from the reversal of their translocation a s a consequence of kinetin application, which also facilitates aerobic metabolism of pyruvate affecting the lactate level. By contrast, cycl oheximide brings about initial decline but later accumulation of starc h and sugars, through a rise in sucrose content indicating an enzymic pathway and that the enzymes need to be synthesised, but the synthesis is inhibited by cycloheximide application. Similarly, enzyme-mediated lactate production is also interfered by cycloheximide application.