Galactinol in the leaves of the resurrection plant Boea hygroscopica

The content of low molecular weight substances was analysed in leaf samples of the resurrection plant Boea hygroscopica F. Muell. submitted to dehydra tion. Drying treatment caused a variation in the carbohydrate pool, with a decrease of all sugars except sucrose which notably increased, becoming the prevalent one in dried leaves. Rehydration almost restored the pretreatmen t sugar composition. Along with more common sugars galactinol and some high er oligosaccharides of the raffinose family were detected. Their structures were assigned by NMR and GC-MS analyses after acetylation. To our knowledg e, this is the first finding in resurrection plants of significant amounts of the galactosyl donor galactinol and of higher galactosyl oligosaccharide s, which may have a role in restoring the pre-drying functions upon rehydra tion. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.