Abstract

TAXONOMIC SIGNIFICANCE OF VOLATILE ORGANIC METABOLITES IN SYNOTIS (C.B.CLARKE) C.JEFFREY & Y.L.CHEN

Sudha Joshi (Shrestha)*

Abstract

The volatile secondary organic metabolites from n-hexane of nine species of Synotis (C.B.Clarke) C.Jeffrey and Y.L.Chen from Nepal Himalaya were evaluated by Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry. Among a number of secondary compounds present, taxonomic significance of seventeen compounds viz. acorenol, bergamotene, cadin, cadinene, calarene, caryophyllene, cumialdehyde, cycloprop(e) azulene, elemol, farnesene, hexanol, intermedeol, muurolene, naphthalene, naphthalenone, propenoic acid and tridecane were considered. All the species studied are characterized by the presence of farnesene and naphthalenone. Elemol is present in all species except S.tetrantha; cadin and propenoic acid are present in all except in S. managensis; cumialdehyde is present in all species except in S. acuminata and S. wallichii; caryophyllene is present in all species except in S. rufinervis and S. wallichii; cadinene is present in all species except in S. rufinervis and S. tetrantha. Some species like S. acunimata is characterized by the presence of bergamotene; S. alata by tridecane; S. managensis by Cycloprop(e)azulene and hexanol; S. tetrantha by acorenol and calarene; S. tetrantha and S. triligulata by intermedeol. Presence and absence of a single or group of secondary metabolites indicates that those compounds have the significance as the taxonomic marker at infrageneric level, which had not been considered before.

Keywords: Secondary metabolite, Significance, Nepal Himalaya, Infrageneric, Taxonomic marker.