Characterization of the Essential oil of the Bat-Pollinated Passiflora mucronata

Abstract

The genus Passiflora is an important source of food, therapeutic substances and for the horticultural economy. In the last decades, a detailed chemical composition of the essential oil of Passiflora species has been reported, but only for few species, mainly of agricultural interest, although little attention has been paid to chiropterophilous Passifloraceae, such as P. mucronata. The present study is focused on analyzing the essential oil composition of P. mucronata, a Brazilian bat-pollinated species. From GC/FID and GC/MS analyses of the volatile fraction from fresh flowers and leaves, hydrocarbons were quantified as 47.9% and 42.8% of the total volatiles of flowers and leaves, respectively, esters for 50.8% in flowers and 6.4% in leaves, and alcohols 38.2% and 0.3% of the total volatiles from leaves and flowers, respectively. Other classes of compounds, such as monoterpenes and aldehydes, together with phytol, were detected in higher concentration in leaves compared with flowers. The higher content of methyl and ethyl esters of long chain saturated and unsaturated fatty acids, i.e. ethyl linolenate (38.3%), methyl linolenate (7.0%) and ethyl palmitate (3.6%), were the most representative suggesting that esters might play a critical role for fertilization of P. mucronata acting as bat attractors.

A common protocol for reliable comparison of pollen fatty acid profiles: highlighting pitfalls and proposing a methodology for ecological research

“…Traces of dicarboxylic acids have been found in the content of Dufour's gland in the genus Colletes and the royal jelly of honey bees (Çelik et al, 2022). FA ethyl esters have been reported in nectar and floral volatiles (i.e., in Dactylanthus taylorii and Passiflora mucronata, respectively) (Ecroyd et al, 1995;della Cuna et al, 2018). One of these esters (ethyl oleate) has been shown to act as an inhibitory factor and delay aging in honey bees (Leoncini et al, 2004).…”

Chemical Composition of the Essential Oils From Leaves and Flowers of Passiflora sexocellata and Passiflora trifasciata

“…4 GC/FID and GC-MS coupled with steam distillation has been employed to analyze fresh flowers and leaves of P. mucronata (subgenus Passiflora) in order to assess the role of floral volatiles in plant pollination. 5 Long chain methyl and ethyl esters, accounting for 50.8% of the essential oil from flowers, seems to be key of attraction for bats such as Carollia perspicillata and Glossophaga soricina, driven by the olfactory stimuli of these compounds when visiting P. mucronata for foraging. A high content of odd linear long-chain hydrocarbons was detected in fresh tissues of three bee-pollinated Passiflora hybrids, acting as allelochemicals in plant herbivore interactions.…”