Contenido de pigmentos fotosintéticos en cuatro especies arbustivas nativas del noreste de México

Plant pigments such as chlorophylls, carotenoids, xanthophylls and flavonoids play an important role during the photosyntheticprocess of higher plants. The objective of present study was o determine the contents of chlorophyll a, b and carotenoids in fournative shrub species, in the municipality of los Ramones, Nuevo Leon, northeastern Mexico. Evaluated plant species were: Condaliahookeri, Syderoxylon celastrinum, Prosopis glandulosa, and Celtis pallida. Leaf samples were randomly selected form a 2,500 mundisturbed plot. In this regard, five leaf samples per species were collected, having a total of 20 leaf tissue samples in order toproceed with the extract preparation to measure absorbance at specific wavelengths to quantitate phtosyntetic pigment content bymeans of using a Perkin-Elmer UV/VIS spectrophotmer. According to the Kruskal-Wallis non-parametirc test, highly significantdifferences (P<.05) were detected in pigment content among studied species. Highest chloropyll a content were observed in P.glandulosa (0.84 mg/gfw) and S. celastrinum (0.82 mg/gfw). With respect to chrophyll b, higher values (0.21 mg/gfw) wereshown in C. hookeri and P. glandulosa (0.16 mg/gfw). With respect to carotenoids, maximum values were observed in S.celastrinum, P. glandulosa (0.20 mg/gfw) and C. pallida (0.18 mg/gfw). Total chlorophyll content (a+b) was different amongspecies, however, S. celastrinum and P. glandulosa (1.03 mg/gfw) achieved higher values (1.00 mg/gfw). With respect to thechlorophyll a/b ratio, there were significant among species, however, the species P. glandulosa acquired higher values (5.98).Similarly, the total chlorophyll (a+b)/car ratio was also different among species and the species P. glandulosa achived higher values(5.64). The variation in the pigment content has an important role in the productivity and phtosynthetic process of studied species.Differences could be related to physiological synthtesis capabilities of each species and to the environmental conditions where thesespecies grow and develop.