Biological activity of humic substances extracted from soils under different vegetation cover

Comparisons were made between the chemical compositions of humic substances extracted from three soils covered by different vegetation and their biological activities assayed using 15‐ and 30‐day‐old seedlings of Pinus sylvestris and Picea abies. The growth, “α‐amylase and invertase activity were affected by humic fractions and by gibberellic acid (GA), indicating that humic matter had a gibberellin‐like activity. The isoenzymatic polymorphism in the electrophoretic patterns of esterase was influenced in a similar way by all humic fractions and by indoleacetic acid (IAA), which also suggested that the humic fractions exhibited an auxin‐like activity. The humic fractions extracted from the grassland, exhibiting higher amounts of phenolic and a considerable amount of carboxyl carbon, showed the best metabolic effect. The forest humic fractions, characterized by lower phenolic carbon content, appeared less effective in influencing plant metabolism, whereas the grassland‐forest humic substances proved to be even more less effective. The auxin‐ and the gibberellin‐like activities were related to a high content of phenolic and carboxylic groups. These results presented evidence that the biological activity of the humic substances was attributed to their chemical structure and to their functional groups, which could interact with hormone‐binding proteins in the membrane systems, evoking a hormone‐like response.