Use of gas chromatograms of essential leaf oils to compare clones of Eucalyptus camaldulensis

Using a gentle vacuum technique essential oils were distilled from the leav es of six clones (29 different trees) of Eucalyptus camaldulensis which had previously been propagated by CSIRO, from four seed lots collected from an area of southern Australia bounded approximately by latitude 26 degrees S and longitude 142 degrees E. Inspection of the analyses of the oils togethe r with principal components analysis (PCA) of the gas chromatograms shows t hat corresponding profiles (for those clones studied in groups of two, thre e, four and 20), as indicated by the scores of the principal components, ar e almost independent of environmental and seasonal conditions. (C) 2000 Els evier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.