Barley Seeds
Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2010 6:12 pm
I was wondering if Barley seeds contained chlorophyll? For example, if green light was shone onto a barley seed, would it absorb the light or reflect it? Is it different for seeds?
I have found some information about chlorophyll content in seeds and using this as an indication of how well the seedlings will do during germination. I found some information on brassica (a mustard), tomatoes and canola, but did not see anything for barley.
From the searching I did, I feel there would be some chlorophyll in the seeds and you should be able to detect it, perhaps with this method - http://www.actahort.org/books/504/504_23.htm. Unfortunately the abstract is all we can read without paying for the full article, so we don't have access to details on their method.
We can easily see what light is reflected by the seed by looking at it's color. Do you have some barley seeds? I looked at some pictures I found on google, and they mostly look brown to me, so I think their chlorophyll content would be rather low in comparison to other compounds that appear brown. This will vary on the variety, though.
