Characterization of the volatile fraction emitted by phloems of four pinus species by solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

Abstract

Pine forests constitute some of the most important renewable resources supplying timber, paper and chemical industries, among other functions. Characterization of the volatiles emitted by different Pinus species has proven to be an important tool to decode the process of host tree selection by herbivore insects, some of which cause serious economic damage to pines. Variations in the relative composition of the bouquet of semiochemicals are responsible for the outcome of different biological processes, such as mate finding, egg-laying site recognition and host selection. The volatiles present in phloem samples of four pine species, P. halepensis, P. sylvestris, P. pinaster and P. pinea, were identified and characterized with the aim of finding possible host-plant attractants for native pests, such as the bark beetle Tomicus piniperda. The volatile compounds emitted by phloem samples of pines were extracted by headspace solid-phase micro extraction, using a 2 cm 50/30 mm divinylbenzene/carboxen/polydimethylsiloxane table flex solid-phase microextraction fiber and its contents analyzed by high-resolution gas chromatography, using flame ionization and a non polar and chiral column phases. The components of the volatile fraction emitted by the phloem samples were identified by mass spectrometry using time-of-flight and quadrupole mass analyzers. The estimated relative composition was used to perform a discriminant analysis among pine species, by means of cluster and principal component analysis. It can be concluded that it is possible to discriminate pine species based on the monoterpenes emissions of phloem samples.

Protective Effects of <i>Pinus halepensis</i> L. Essential Oil on Aspirin-induced Acute Liver and Kidney Damage in Female Wistar Albino Rats

“…Its continental range extends from regions of North Africa Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya and the Middle East Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, and Turkey up to Southern Mediterranean regions in Europe 9 Eastern Greece, Croatia, Northern Italy, Eastern France and Eastern Spain . Previous photochemical studies concerned with this species focused on the phenolic compounds of the needles of the plant 10 , the oil seeds 11 , the organic compounds of stems and roots 12,13 , the lipid portion of the pollen grain as well as the volatile compounds including essential oils obtained from needles 14,15 .…”

Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography for fingerprint pattern recognition in olive oils produced by two different techniques in Portuguese olive varieties Galega Vulgar, Cobrançosa e Carrasquenha

“…The novel analytical scale headspace technique of solid phase micro-extraction (SPME) [13] has become a popular, simple, solvent free method for headspace analysis, allowing quantification in both equilibrium and non-equilibrium situations [14,15]. A wide variety of coated fibres offering some degree of sampling selectivity made it a simple, quick, sensitive and versatile method of sample preparation [15][16][17][18][19][20], even for enantiomeric-GC (e-GC) [21]. Nevertheless, careful experimental procedure and prudent data handling is required.…”

Water stress affects Tomicus destruens host pine preference and performance during the shoot feeding phase

“…Insect electrophysiological responses specificity depend on a number of variables, such as stimulus dose (Larsson et al, 2001), whereas both P. pinea needles and bark, emit very low amounts of β-pinene (Paiva et al, in press;Santos et al, 2006). Furthermore, electrophysiological recordings performed under laboratory conditions and insect field behaviour might not have an exact correspondence (e.g.…”