Essential‐Oil Variability in Natural Populations of Pinus mugoTurra from the Julian Alps

Abstract

The composition and variability of the terpenes and their derivatives isolated from the needles of a representative pool of 114 adult trees originating from four natural populations of dwarf mountain pine (Pinus mugo Turra) from the Julian Alps were investigated by GC-FID and GC/MS analyses. In total, 54 of the 57 detected essential-oil components were identified. Among the different compound classes present in the essential oils, the chief constituents belonged to the monoterpenes, comprising an average content of 79.67% of the total oil composition (74.80% of monoterpene hydrocarbons and 4.87% of oxygenated monoterpenes). Sesquiterpenes were present in smaller amounts (average content of 19.02%), out of which 16.39% were sesquiterpene hydrocarbons and 2.62% oxygenated sesquiterpenes. The most abundant components in the needle essential oils were the monoterpenes δ-car-3-ene, β-phellandrene, α-pinene, β-myrcene, and β-pinene and the sesquiterpene β-caryophyllene. From the total data set of 57 detected compounds, 40 were selected for principal-component analysis (PCA), discriminant analysis (DA), and cluster analysis (CA). The overlap tendency of the four populations suggested by PCA, was as well observed by DA. CA also demonstrated similarity among the populations, which was the highest between Populations I and II.

Comparison of Chemical Composition of the Essential Oils from Different Botanical Organs of Pinus mugo Growing in Poland

“…Other components were present in concentration lower than 1 %. Comparing the results of our research with literature data, it can be noted, that the common feature of all oils obtained from twigs with needles of P. mugo was a large amount of monoterpene hydrocarbons (over 70 %) . The oil investigated by us resembled laboratory distilled oils from P. mugo growing in Julian Alps and Dinaric Alps with 3‐carene (13–27 %) and α ‐pinene (12–17 %) as the main constituents .…”

“…Several papers described P. mugo essential oil, its chemical composition and biological activities: antimicrobial, antioxidative, anti‐inflammatory, cytotoxic, and insect larvicidal . Most of them concerned the oils from P. mugo growing wild in the mountains of Southern Europe, i. e. Austrian Alps, Julian Alps, Dinaric Alps and Apennines . In the oils studied previously, 30–70 components were usually identified.…”

Evaluation of Pine Cone Syrups and Changes in Physical Parameters during Storage

“…The percentage of sesquiterpenes is higher in pine syrup with brown sugar. Overall, in all samples, there are more sesquiterpenes (11.11% in syrup with brown sugar and 6.06% in syrup with white sugar) than compared to pine bud syrup, which has only 1.36% according to the research of Semeniuc et al (2016), but less than compared to syrup from mountain pine cones, which has 19.02% sesquiterpenes (Bojović et al, 2016). Aromatic hydrocarbons are most abundant in pine cone syrup with white sugar (18.18%) compared to pine cone syrup with brown sugar (8.33%), which is 10 times less.…”

“…The compounds can also vary depending on the growing location, tree variety, harvesting time and storage conditions. In syrups prepared from mountain pine cones, the terpene content is 79.67% (Bojović et al, 2016). The percentage of sesquiterpenes is higher in pine syrup with brown sugar.…”