Studies on amino acids generated from rape seed cake in the soil

Among the several kinds of seed cakes, the cake made from rape seeds has been most widely employed for tobacco cultivation. Numerous investigations have been conducted by many workers, on the mineralization of organic nitrogen in rape seed cake applied to the soil and on the absorption of inorganic nitrogen degraded from the seed cake in soil by tobacco plants (8,9). However, little has been known about the organic nitrogen compounds which are generated through the process of decomposition of the seed cake. Recently, it has been believed that the plant roots are able to absorb the organic nitrogen compounds such as amino acids (10,11, 12). Therefore, it is considered that these organic nitrogen compounds produced by mineralization of the seed cake applied to the soil would have some effects upon the yield and quality of some crops such as tobacco plant with their physiological effects on plants. This paper deals with the changes in amino acids produced by the mineralization of rape seed cake in the soil.