Volatile Compounds in Norway Spruce (Picea abies) Significantly Vary with Season

Abstract

Norway spruce (Picea abies) is one of the most important commercial conifer species naturally distributed in Europe. In this paper, the composition and abundance of essential oil and hydrosol from the needles and branches of P. abies were investigated with an additional evaluation of changes related to different times of the year, annual shoots and branches, and differences in composition under different microenvironments. Essential oils and hydrosols obtained via hydrodistillation were analyzed using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS), where 246 compounds in essential oil and 53 in hydrosols were identified. The relative amounts of monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes, and diterpenes in essential oil changed significantly during the year, with the highest peak of monoterpenes observed in April (72%), the highest abundance of sesquiterpenes observed in August (21%), and the highest abundance of diterpenes observed in June (27%). The individual compound with the highest variation was manool, with variation from 1.5% (April) to 18.7% (June). Our results also indicate that the essential oil with the lowest allergenic potential (lowest quantity of limonene and linalool) was obtained in late spring or summer. Location had no significant influence on composition, while the method of collection for distillation (whole branch or annual shoots) had a minor influence on the composition. All nine main compounds identified in the hydrosol samples were oxygenated monoterpenes. The composition of P. abies hydrosol was also significantly affected by season. The method of preparing the branches for distillation did not affect the composition of P. abies hydrosol, while the location had a minor effect on composition.

The essential oil composition of Picea sitchensis growing in the Oregon Coast Range

“…It is not clear what factors affect the compositional differences. Previous workers have reported large variations in monoterpene concentrations in essential oils of Picea species both within and between populations [27,30] as well as seasonal variations in individual monoterpenoid concentrations [31][32][33]. Furthermore, the monoterpenoid concentrations vary widely between young leaves and older leaves in P. sitchensis; myrcene was found in high concentrations in immature foliage (95%), but decreased with age with concomitant increase in piperitone concentration [34].…”

Phytochemical Characterization, Antioxidant, and Antimicrobial Activity of the Vegetative Buds from Romanian Spruce, Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.

“…The percentage is However, lower than the essential oil of spruce from other geographical regions in Romania (1.01-1.02%), but this can be explained by the different type of vegetal material they have used, such as mature needles, or bark. [8,10,[46][47][48].…”

EURAF 2024 Abstract book

“…The use of conifers in grappa aromatisation is usually limited to specific plant organs, such as cones and young shoots, subjected to maceration within the spirit. Different studies analysed the chemical composition of cones and sprouts of Pinus mugo and Picea abies, and consequently the compound extracted during the maceration (Lis et al 2019;Mofikoya et al 2022;Garzoli et al 2023;Schoss et al 2023;Valussi 2023), while a limited number of works focused on the wood and bark composition (Kreps et al 2017;Lis et al 2019).…”