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Royal jelly acid and sebacic acid contained in the royal jelly and myrmicacin in the secretions of the ant strongly affected the germination, pollen tube elongation and mitotic division of the generative nucleus of pollen grains under an acidic condition (pH 5.0). 2-Decenoic acid and capric acid had much stronger inhibiting activities on pollen growth than did the insect-origin acids. The secretions of the ant and the honeybee containing the inhibitors are believed to serve to prevent putrefaction or to inhibit growth of collected foods. The compounds can be used both as antiseptics and as inhibitors for biological researches.
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Iwanami et al. (1979) studied this question.
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