n-alkanes in needle waxes of Pinus heldreichii var. pancici

This is the first report of n-alkanes in needle epicuticular waxes of the variety Bosnian pine, Pinus heldreichii var. pancici. n-Hexane extracts of needle samples, originating from seven isolated localities in Serbia, were analysed by gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography―mass spectrometry (GC―MS). The results evidenced n-alkanes ranging from C 18 to C 33 in epicuticular waxes. The most abundant alkanes were C 27 , C 23 , C 25 and C 29 (12.53 %, 12.46 %, 12.00 % and 10.38 % on average, respectively). The carbon preference index (CPI total ) of Pinus heldreichii var. pancici ranged from 1.1 to 2.1 (1.6 on average), while the average chain length (ACL total ) ranged from 25.0 to 25.8 (25.3 on average). A high level of individual quantitative variation in all of these hydrocarbon parameters was also found. The obtained results were compared with the bibliographic references for Pinus heldreichii var. leucodermis and other species of the Pinus genus.