Juniperus phoenicea var. turbinata (Guss.) Parl. Leaf Essential Oil Variability in the Balkans

Abstract

In the present work, the leaf essential oil from 97 individuals of Juniperus phoenicea var. turbinata (Guss.) Parl. from the Balkan Peninsula was analyzed. The essential oil was dominated by monoterpene hydrocarbons (45.5 - 71.8%), of which α-pinene was the most abundant in almost all of the samples (38.2 - 55.8%). Several other monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes were also present in relatively high abundances in samples such as myrcene, δ-3-carene, β-phellandrene, α-terpinyl acetate, (E)-caryophyllene and germacrene D. Multivariate statistical analysis suggested the existence of three possible chemotypes based on the abundance of the four components. Even though the intrapopulation variability was high, discriminant analysis (DA) was able to separate populations. DA showed high separation between western and eastern populations but also grouped geographically closer populations along the west Balkan shoreline. The potential influence of the climate on the composition of the essential oil was also studied.

Taxonomic characterization, morphological variability, and geographic patterns of Juniperus turbinata Guss. in Algeria

“…This is consistent with the results obtained earlier by other authors, who also showed significant variation within the J. turbinata group, with a low level of variability in J. phoenicea s.s., stating that the range of J. turbinata is sufficiently large but fragmented and discontinuous (Quézel 1980;Browicz 1982;Boratyński et al 2009). Several authors have analysed the essential oil chemical variability within the J. turbinata group around the Mediterranean (Adams et al 2014;Rajčević et al 2018) andin Algeria (Bekhechi et al 2012). Three chemotypes were found, and several geographic patterns within the species were recorded.…”