title: A 'low-level' chemotaxonomic analysis of the plant family Apiaceae: the case of Scandix balansae Reut. ex Boiss. (tribe Scandiceae).
abstract: Analyses by GC and GC/MS of an essential-oil sample obtained from dry fruits of Scandix balansae Reut. ex Boiss. allowed the identification of 81 components, comprising 91.4% of the total oil composition. Interestingly, the major identified volatile compounds were medium-chain-length n-alkanes, i.e., tridecane (6.7%), pentadecane (13.4%), and heptadecane (19.3%), and a long-chain homolog nonacosane (7.6%). A number of minor oil constituents, among them tetradecyl 3-methylbutanoate, and octadecyl 2-methylpropanoate, 3-methylbutanoate, and pentanoate, turned out to have a restricted natural occurrence not only in umbellifers but also in the Plant Kingdom, whereas the last ester is a new natural compound in general. The identity of these rare plant constituents that present excellent chemotaxonomic marker candidates for Scandix species was unambiguously confirmed by co-injection of the oil sample with appropriate standards, which were synthesized for this purpose and fully characterized ((1) H- and (13) C-NMR, IR, MS). To explore the possible applicability of the essential oils' compositional data in the taxonomy of Apiaceae, the herein studied and additional 58 oils obtained from Scandiceae taxa were compared using multivariate statistical analyses (MVA). MVA demonstrated that the evolution of the volatiles' metabolism of Scandiceae taxa was neither genera-specific nor follows their morphological evolution.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Mathematics, University of Niš, Višegradska 33, 18000 Niš, Serbia. nikoradulovic@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Niko S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Radulović
authors.forename: Marko Z
authors.initials: MZ
authors.lastname: Mladenović
authors.forename: Polina D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Blagojević
mesh_terms: D019661:Apiaceae / Q000737:chemistry*; D005638:Fruit / Q000737:chemistry; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009822:Oils, Volatile / Q000032:analysis* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D025341:Principal Component Analysis
chemical_list: D009822:Oils, Volatile
keywords: Essential oils; Isovalerate, tetradecyl; Multivariate statistical analyses (MVA); Scandix balansae; Valerate, octadecyl