Abstract
The environmental fate of conifer resins and their natural product compounds as mixtures is of importance for source, alteration, and transport studies. The compound compositions of resins of the common Callitris species (Cupressaceae) based on gas chromatography-mass spectrometry have not been reported. Results show that diterpenoids were the most abundant components and callitrisic acid was present in the resin extracts of all Callitris species analyzed. Significant amounts of 4-epi-pimaric and sandaracopimaric acids, with lesser communic, ozic, and lambertianic acids, were also in the mixtures. Phenolic diterpenoids, for example, ferruginol, hinokiol, were found in trace quantities in some samples. Thus, callitrisic acid and 4-epi-pimaric acid are the characteristic diterpenoids of Callitris species that are amenable to molecular biomarker analyses in geological or environmental applications.
Highlights
Natural products from plants are preserved directly or as derivatives in the contemporary and fossil geological environments
The application of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) in the analysis of natural product mixtures extracted from plants for compound characterization can be of utility for rapid screening in pharmacological studies [15]
Callitrisic acid was isolated from Callitris columellaris wood and its structure was determined by correlation with known compounds and synthesis [20]
Summary
Natural products from plants (e.g., terpenoids of conifer resins) are preserved directly or as derivatives (diagenetic products) in the contemporary and fossil geological environments. Callitrisic acid was isolated from Callitris columellaris wood and its structure was determined by correlation with known compounds and synthesis [20]. Callitrisic acid has a restricted distribution in the extant plant kingdom, mainly in Callitris species and isolated reports for Juniperus, Calceolaria, Rabdosia, and Illicium species, the latter three belonging to Angiosperms [15,22,23,24]. The only other natural products reported from Callitris species are sesquiterpenoids and lignans. In this study only C. preissii contains numerous known and novel lignans in the total resin extract. They are a complex mixture, including seco-lariciresinols, lariciresinols, pinoresinols, and matairesinol with many syringyl moieties, and their mass spectra as the derivatized compounds with interpretations have been published [31]. An assessment of the presence of callitrisic acid in resins of closely related and other conifers
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