Abstract
Using the seed of two kind of soybeans, peanut, sunflower, corn and Brassica chinensis var. Komatsuna, comparative examinations were made for changes in the content and composition of tocopherols in lipid of their seeds during the initial stage of growth from germinating to just before expanding cotyledons.
1) Total tocopherol content in lipid component of soybeans decreased rapidly at early germination, and after a following temporary increase tended to decrease gradually. That of peanut, sunflower and corn tended to increase gradually after a rapid decrease at early germination. However, that of Komatsuna tended to increase gradually during germination without a rapid decrease at early period.
2) As to tocopherol composition, in general, the percentage of α-tocopherol tended to increase during germination while that of γ-and δ-tocopherol tended to decrease, this tendency being parti-cularly prominent in Komatsuna.
3) Fatty acid composition changed little during germination in all seeds examined. Total sterol content in lipid component of seed tended to increase gradually during germination, but its composition did not change so clearly as that of tocopherols, except the percentage of brassicasterol decreased gradually in Komatsuna.
