Essential oil composition of Six Pinus L. Taxa (Pinaceae) from Canada and their chemotaxonomy

Abstract

In this study six Pinus L. taxa from Canada (P. strobus L., P. parviflora Siebold & Zucc., P. mugo Turra subsp. mugo, P. resinosa Sol. ex Aiton, P. flexilis E. James and P. nigra J. F. Arnold) were studied to determine on chemical characters of studied taxa. For this purpose, essential oil from needles of the six Pinus taxa were investigated by HS-SPME/GC-MS. 38, 33, 39, 28, 31 and 46 compounds were respectively identified from each species representing 95.90%, 95.07%, 95.79%, 96.20%, 93.05% and 96.25% of the oil. The results have given some clues on the chemotaxonomy of this genus and are of usable potentials of the plants as renewable resources. Although the essential oil composition of studied taxa showed chemical divergences because of climatical, seasonal, geographical and geological factors, but the major compounds of plant derivatives are generally similar and the major compounds are chemotaxonomical markers for studied taxa.