Abstract
Volatile compounds play a vital role in the life cycle of plants, possessing antimicrobial and anti-herbivore activities, and with a significant importance in the food, cosmetic, chemical, and pharmaceutical industry. This study aimed to identify the volatile compounds emitted by flowers of thirteen species belonging to four genera of Bromeliaceae, using headspace solid-phase micro-extraction and detection by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. A total of 71 volatile compounds belonging to nine chemical groups were identified. The compounds identified represented more than 97 % of the major components in Aechmea bicolor, Ae. bromeliifolia, Ae. distichantha, Ae. fasciata, and Vriesea friburgensis. In the Ananas varieties, over 99 % of the components were identified, and around 90 % in V. simplex. V. friburgensis presented the largest diversity of volatiles with 31 compounds, while Alcantarea nahoumii presented only 14. All three Ananas varieties presented the same 28 compounds in relatively similar abundance, which has been confirmed by principal component analysis. Current taxonomy and pollination syndrome studies available can adequately explain the variation in volatile compounds among species.
Highlights
This study aims to identify volatile compounds from flowers of thirteen ornamental species belonging to four genera of Bromeliaceae, and to bring a new contribution revealing the potential that these plants have in the industry, in the synthesis of natural products, as well as in future studies of ecological processes involving plant-animal interactions, and taxonomy studies from the principal components analysis
HS-solid-phase microextraction (SPME)/GC-MS analysis of the volatile profile emitted by flowers of 13 species belonging to four genera of Bromeliaceae was performed
Nine chemical groups were found in the identified compounds: alcohols, terpenoids, aldehydes, esters, ketones, ethers, furans, oxides, and styrene (Table 1)
Summary
Tillandsia macropetala Wawra flowers are pollinated by bats and present faintly sweet odor in the early hours of the night, when the nectar volume is the highest (Aguilar-Rodriguez et al, 2014). These compounds may possess antimicrobial and antiherbivore activity, repelling microorganisms and animals or attracting natural predators, protecting the plant through tritrophic interactions (Hammer, Carson, & Riley, 2003; Arab & Bento, 2006; Lucas-Barbosa, Loon, & Dicke, 2011), which suggests their involvement in the protection of the reproductive parts of plants during flowering (Kessler, Halitschke, & Poveda, 2011; ParraGarcés, Caroprese-Araque, Arrieta-Prieto, & Stashenko, 2010). This study aims to identify volatile compounds from flowers of thirteen ornamental species belonging to four genera of Bromeliaceae (using headspace solid-phase micro-extraction with detection by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry), and to bring a new contribution revealing the potential that these plants have in the industry, in the synthesis of natural products, as well as in future studies of ecological processes involving plant-animal interactions, and taxonomy studies from the principal components analysis
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