Volatile constituents from flowers, leaves, bark and wood of Prunus mahaleb L.

Volatile constituents from air‐dried flowers, leaves, stem‐bark and wood of Prunus mahaleb L. (Rosaceae) were isolated by steam‐distillation and analysed using GC and GC–MS; 130 components were identified. Aliphatic hydrocarbons, alcohols, carbonyls, fatty acids, terpenes, C 13 ‐norisoprenoids and phenylpropane derivatives were detected. Coumarin was identified as the main component of the bark volatiles (34.1%). Hexadecanoic acid was the main component in the wood (46.0%), and was also present in the leaves (17.8%) and bark (9.3%). n ‐Alkanes, heneicosane (22.1%) and octacosane (13.0%) were identified as the main components in the flowers, while eicosane was detected in the wood (12.9%). Phytol was identified in the leaves (5.1%). Dodecanoic, tetradecanoic and linoleic acids were present in all samples among the major components. The contents of volatile compounds were 340.0 mg/kg (flowers), 64.6 mg/kg (leaves), 41.0 mg/kg (bark) and 6.6 mg/kg (wood). Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.