Abstract
The presence of n-alkanes, free alcohols and free acids in leaf epicuticular wax extracts of 22 samples of 11 Euphorbia L. species belonging to the sections Paralias, Esula, Myrsiniteae and Helioscopia, 10 of which were never examined before, were analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS), and n-alkane C27 was detected as the principal component of leaf epicuticular waxes in the majority of the examined species, while the most abundant free alcohol was C26. Three Euphorbia species belonging to section Helioscopia were characterized by a predominance of alcohol C28. Free acid (C16) was the major component in 21 investigated samples. The usefulness of n-alkanes and free alcohols and free acids as potential chemotaxonomic markers is briefly discussed.
Highlights
The genus Euphorbia, with more than 1900 species distributed throughout the world, mainly in tropical, subtropical and warm temperate areas [1], is one of the largest and most diverse genera among the Euphorbiaceae family, and in the whole Embryophyta
The presence of n-alkanes, free alcohols and free acids in leaf epicuticular wax extracts of 22 samples of 11 Euphorbia L. species belonging to the sections Paralias, Esula, Myrsiniteae and Helioscopia, 10 of which were never examined before, were analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS), and n-alkane C27 was detected as the principal component of leaf epicuticular waxes in the majority of the examined species, while the most abundant free alcohol was C26
C27 n-alkane predominated in five Euphorbia species: E. seguieriana subsp. niciciana and E. seguieriana subsp. seguieriana, E. cyparissias, E. amygdaloides, E. salicifolia, and E. polychroma
Summary
The genus Euphorbia, with more than 1900 species distributed throughout the world, mainly in tropical, subtropical and warm temperate areas [1], is one of the largest and most diverse genera among the Euphorbiaceae family, and in the whole Embryophyta. The whole structure is surrounded by a ‘whorl’ of green perianth-like bracts with four horn-shaped glands between them, probably representing stipules or bracts. A characteristic epicuticular wax composition, especially n-alkanes, is found among different kinds of plants and has been suggested as a potential character for chemotaxonomy [5,6,7,8,9]. Leaf wax n-alkanes have successfully been used as taxonomic characters for some plants, mostly at the genus and species levels [10,11,12,13,14]. It was shown that n-alkanes from leaf waxes and their average chain length (ACL) could be considered as taxonomic markers for the separation of the subgenera Dendrocalamus and Bambusa [18]. The dominant n-alkanes and their ACL values served as the criterion for determination of the evolutionary stages of Dendrocalamus, Dendrocalamopsis and Bambusa species [18]
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