Dear Melania,

IHC has been successfully applied to localize small secondary metabolites in plant cells (Kelly et al., 1998; Attoumbré et al., 2010), among them the sesquiterpenoid α-santalol (Misra und Dey, 2014) and the bicyclic monoterpenoid 2-methylisoborneol (Plhak und Park, 2003). Of course you would need to have antibodies binding to the substances you are intersted in.

Best regards,

Johanna

Literature:

Kelly, P., Bones, A. und Rossiter, J. (1998) Sub-cellular immunolocalization of the glucosinolate sinigrin in seedlings of Brassica juncea. Planta 206(3): 370-377.

Misra, B. B. und Dey, S. (2014) Immunolocalization of α-santalol in sandalwood. Journal of Essential Oil Research(ahead-of-print): 1-9.

Plhak, L. C. und Park, E. S. (2003) High-affinity monoclonal antibodies for detection of the microbial metabolite, 2-methylisoborneol. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 51(13): 3731-3736.

Attoumbré, J., Bienaimé, C., Dubois, F., Fliniaux, M.-A., Chabbert, B. und Baltora-Rosset, S. (2010) Development of antibodies against secoisolariciresinol–Application to the immunolocalization of lignans in Linum usitatissimum seeds. Phytochemistry 71(17): 1979-1987.

Dear Johanna, thanks a lot for your quick answer. I will look int the literature you have suggested to see if there is a technique suitable for us.

Best regards. Melania

Immunohistochemical staining.

The presence of essential oil terpenes can easily be determined by hydro-distilling a sample in Clevenger trap. Essential oils are generally stored in oil glands (gladular trichomes). Analysis of the essential oil by GC-FID and GC-MS reveals the presence of specific terpenes and other classes of compounds along with their percentages in the essential oil.