The fatty acid composition of the seed oil has been used as a criterion in
searching for a rational infrageneric classification of Linum L.. The objec
tive of the present study was to evaluate the taxonomic potential of other
seed traits such as tocopherols and plastochromanol-8 in this genus. The re
sults revealed that, in addition to fatty acids, tocopherols and plastochro
manol-8 possess an important chemotaxonomic value for the genus Linum. Sect
. Linum and sect. Syllinum Griseb. clearly differed from each other for the
three types of compounds. Sect. Linum was characterized by the presence of
plastochromanol-8, a high concentration of linolenic acid, and an intermed
iate or low concentration of alpha-tocopherol, Contrarily, sect. Syllinum l
acked plastochromanol-8 and contained a low concentration of linolenic acid
and a high concentration of alpha-tocopherol. The three species evaluated
of the section Linastrum (Planch.) Bentham showed no common pattern, questi
oning their classification within the same section.