The objective of this work was to evaluate the intoxication of weeds and sugarcane cultivars by amicarbazone. Ipomoea grandifolia was used as weed representative and the sugarcane cultivars PO8862, SP80 3280, and RB835486, characterized as sensitive, intermediate and tolerant to herbicides, respectively. Water consumption was verified and amicarbazone concentration quantified in the xylem sap of the three sugarcane cultivars and of I. grandifolia, using the Schollander pump and chromatography and mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Plant intoxication was verified by fluorescence readings with the aid of portable fluorometer, which allowed the correlation of the electron transport rate (ETR) with the concentration of amicarbazone absorbed by the sugarcane cultivars and I. grandifolia. Thus, it could be verified through experiments that the reduction of ETR values may be used to indicate the level of intoxication of I. grandifolia, and sugarcane plants by amicarbazone. I. grandifolia was more sensitive to amicarbazone than sugarcane. The differential susceptibility of the sugarcane varieties PO8862, SP80 3280, and RB83 5486 can be justified possibly by the differential absorption of amicarbazone among cultivars.
selectivity; photosynthesis; fluorescence; fluorometer
