Cotyledon Disc Bioassay for Certain Herbicides

Abstract

A rapid cotyledon disc bioassay developed for photosynthetic inhibitors was tested on several herbicides of different modes of action. In addition to being an excellent bioassay method for photosynthetic inhibitors it was found to be useful for the detection of diquat (6,7-dihydrodipyrido[1,2-α:2′,1′-c] pyrazine-diium ion), paraquat (1,1′-dimethyl-4,4′-dipyridinium ion), and dinoseb (2-sec-butyl-4,6-dinitrophenol). Herbicides representing several other modes of action could not be readily detected by this method.