Seasonal changes in the surface waxes of the leaves and fruits of four species of Citrus have been examined. Leaf wax deposits ranging from 20pg/cm2 in orange to 31 pg/cm2 in lemon were consistent during all except the most juvenile stages of growth whereas the surface waxes of the fruits showed considerable variation, the most pronounced being a 58% decrease in the wax deposits of lemon between July and October. Hydrocarbons (23-66 %), primary alcohols (6-38%) and fatty acids were important constituents of the waxes of mature leaves and fruits but aldehydes present as major components of the fruit waxes (28-44%), were found only in trace quantities in the leaf waxes. n-Hentriacontane and n-tritriacontane, the dominant homologues of the hydrocarbon fractions were the major components of the leaf waxes which also contained n-hexacosanol and n-octacosonal as important constituents. n-Nonacosane, n-hentriacontane, n-tetracosanal, n-hexacosanal and n-octacosanal were present in the largest proportions in the fruit waxes.
The qualitative and quantitative compositions of the intracuticular lipids of the leaves and fruits of four species of Citrus have been examined. The leaf cuticular membranes (280-31 6 pg/cm2) were well developed and contained high proportions of cutin (77-87 %) of which isomers of dihydroxyhexadecanoic acid (79-82 %)were the most abundant monomers. The fruit membranes (221-271 pg/cm2) contained smaller proportions of cutin (59-67 %) whose major monomeric constituents were dihydroxyhexadecanoic acid (30-62 %) and 16-hydroxyoxohexadecanoic acid (21-57 %). The substantial amounts of cuticular wax (34-68 pg/cm2) located within the membranes consisted largely of fatty acids (68-97 %) with hexadecanoic acid (44-78 %) and octadecanoic acid (1 1-39 %) present as the main components.
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