Title : Diversity of terpenes and n alkanes in Pine species chemotaxonomic implications
Abstract:
It is well known that the Pinus genus is the most numerous in the Pinaceae family (about 110 species) and divided into two subgenus: Strobus (with 5 needles per fascicle) and Pinus (with 2 needles per fascicle). In this study, the focus is on autochthonous, relict and endemic species: Bosnian pine, P. heldreichii and Macedonian pine, P. peuce, because there are disagreements of various authors in terms of taxonomy. In addition, the terpene composition of 10 autochthonous and allochthonous pine species from the territory of Serbia and Croatia was examined.
In most taxa (P. mugo, P. nigra ssp. nigra, P. nigra ssp. dalmatica, P. peuce, P. pinea, P. sylvestris, P. strobus and P. wallichiana) a-pinene is the most abundant terpene compound, while the following terpenes are dominant in other species: b-pinene (P. ponderosa), trans-caryophyllene (P. halepensis), germacrene D (P. heldreichii), and abietadiene (P. pinaster).
In 12 analyzed species the following n-alkanes dominate: C23 (P. heldreichii), C25 and C29 (P. peuce), C27 (P. nigra), C29 (P. mugo), C31 (P. sylvestris or C35 (P. ponderosa), etc. As in most cases the subjects of examination are individual trees, the obtained results direct us to population study in order to discover other chemotypes which are common in pines.
This work was supported by Grant No 173029 of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia.
