Assessment, Conservation and Sustainable Use of Forest Biodiversity

Assessment, Conservation and Sustainable Use of Forest Biodiversity
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CHEMOTYPICAL VARIABILITY OF PINE STANDS IN THE
NORTH-WEST OF RUSSIA
S.Ye. Maslakov, A.V. Zhigunov
St.Petersburg Forestry Research Institute,
Russian Federation, 194021,
St. Petersburg, Institutsky pr. 21,
E-mail:spb330@spb.sitek.net
Keywords: Pinus sylvestris, terpenic compounds, flavonoids, chemotypical variability
Introduction
The intraspecific systematic of Scotch pine (Pinus sylvestris) and population genetics closely connected to it
are undoubtedly of vital importance due to the practical significance of this species. As is well known, Scotch
pine does not have any clear genetic markers that allow identifying individual populations and other
intraspecific structures. Morphological indicators are difficult to use for identification, as there is no set of
features that would be easy to identify, besides, they vary greatly depending on forest site conditions. To
establish natural differentiation of this species, the authors studied variability of chemical characteristics, such
as the content of mono-, sesqui-, diterpenic compounds and flavonoids extracted from pine needles.
The subject and methods of the investigation
The subject of the investigation was the content of extracts from Scotch pine needles. The samples of needles
were selected from more than 500 model trees in different forest conditions at stationary sites and the net of
forest monitoring in the North-West of Russia. The gas-liquid chromatography - mass spectrometry method
was used to study the content of the extracts.
The results and discussion
More than 90 compounds that contain over 50–75 mg/kg, including monoterpenic hydrocarbons and oxygenbearing
monoterpenic compounds – 26; sesquiterpenic hydrocarbons and oxygen-bearing sesquiterpenic
compounds – 31; diterpenic hydrocarbons and oxygen-bearing diterpenic compounds - 7; flavonoids – 11,
were extracted from Scotch pine needles. The study showed that there were both qualitative and quantitative
differences in terpenic compounds and flavonoids caused, first of all, by genetic factors and stress metabolism.
Statistic methods were used to determine the influence of ecological conditions on the composition and
content of essential oils in Scotch pine needles. As a result, four genetic lines of Scotch pine were selected,
differing in heterogeneity of biosynthesis by ∆ 3 - carene, diterpene hydrocarbons and flavonoids. In accordance
with the content of extracts five main chemotypes of Scotch pine were determined for the North-West of
Russia (Table 1.).
Diterpenic hydrocarbons and oxygen-bearing diterpenic compounds content proved to be the most variable
in the compounds extracted from needles. It allowed selecting two main phylogenetic lines of pine: the first
one (chemotypes I and II) – with practically no diterpenic hydrocarbons in pine needles, the second -
(chemotypes III and IV) – on the contrary, with a high content of diterpenic hydrocarbons and oxygenbearing
diterpenoids in pine needles. Each of these two main phylogenetic lines is divided into other two: the
one containing ∆ 3 - carene (II and IV) and the other (I and II) that does not contain it. Chemotype V differs
from the previous ones in a high content of flavonoid compounds in pine needles and their different quality.
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