Chemodiversity of Nonacosan‐10‐ol and n ‐Alkanes in the Needle Wax of Pinus heldreichii

This is the first report of individual variability and population diversity of the contents of nonacosan‐10‐ol and n ‐alkanes in the needle cuticular waxes of Bosnian pines originated from Montenegro, regarded as Pinus heldreichii var. leucodermis , and from Serbia, regarded as P. heldreichii var. pančići. The amount of nonacosan‐10‐ol varied individually from 27.4 to 73.2% (55.5% in average), but differences between the four investigated populations were not statistically confirmed. The size of the n ‐alkanes ranged from C 18 to C 33 . The most abundant n ‐alkanes were C 23 , C 27 , and C 25 (12.2, 11.2, and 10.8% in average, resp.). The carbon preference index (CPI) of the n ‐alkanes ranged from 0.8 to 3.1 (1.6 in average), while the average chain length (ACL) ranged from 20.9 to 26.5 (24.4 in average). Long‐chain and mid‐chain n ‐alkanes prevailed (49.6 and 37.9% in average, resp.). It was also found that the populations of P. heldreichii var. leucodermis had predominantly a narrower range of n ‐alkanes (C 18 C 31 ) than the trees of the variety pančići (C 18 C 33 ). Differences between the varieties were also significant for most of the other characteristics of the n ‐alkane pattern ( e.g. , most abundant n ‐alkanes, CPI, ACL, and relative proportion of short‐, mid‐, and long‐chain n ‐alkanes). The principle component and cluster analyses of eleven n ‐alkanes confirmed the significant diversity of these two varieties.