Occurrence of formaldehyde in intact plants, micropropagated plants and hairy root cultures of chamomile (Matricaria recutita L.)

In different parts of both micropropagated and intact(ordinary, soil-grown) chamomile plants and in hairyroot cultures of this species, formaldehyde (HCHO) indimedone adduct form was identified and quantified byan automatic OPLC instrument using authenticformaldemethone as a standard. The amount of HCHObound by the dimedone reagent increases as theconcentration of dimedone is increased, until amaximum is reached. The HCHO detected is thought to bederived from metabolically-labile hydroxymethylgroups, and suggests that some as yet unidentifiedhydroxymethyl-containing molecule in chamomile mayplay an important role in the metabolism of this commonmedicinal plant.