karrikinとは 意味・読み方・使い方

Karrikins are a group of plant growth regulators found in the smoke of burning plant material. For many years scientists have known that smoke from forest fires had the ability to stimulate the germination of seeds. In 2004, after studying the thousands of chemical compounds found in smoke, it was discovered that a series of butenolides were responsible for this effect. A member of the research team looking at these compounds, David Nelson, consulted a professor of Linguistics at University of Western Australia, who advised that the first recorded Noongar word for 'smoke' from the Perth area in the 1830s, is 'karrik'. This led to these compounds being named karrikins. Currently, there are four known karrikins which are designated KAR₁, KAR₂, KAR₃,and KAR₄.