TAXONOMY OF PINUS SPECIES BASED ON THE SEED OIL FATTY-ACID COMPOSITIONS

The fatty acid compositions of the seed oils from ten pine species hav e been established by capillary gas-liquid chromatography of the methy l esters. With regard to either normal fatty acids or Delta 5-olefinic acids, the general pattern of fatty acids did not differ from that of other pine seed oils reported previously. The main fatty acid was lin oleic (9,12-18:2) acid (44.4-57.1%), followed by either oleic (9-18:1) acid (13.4-24.5%) or pinolenic (5,9,12-18:3) acid (1.5-25.2%). When a pplying multivariate analyses to the chemometric data (13 variables) o f 49 pine species (ca. 40% of the living pine species), it was possibl e to distinguish between several sections: Pinea, Longifolia, Halepens is, Ponderosa-Banksiana, Sylvestris, and Cembra. The latter section wa s clearly divided into two sub-groups. A few species that presented a low overall content Delta 5-olefinic acids, and that grow in a warm-te mperate regions, were isolated from the bulk of other pine species. It is hypothesized that Delta 5-olefinic acids might be related to cold- acclimation.