Seed oil alkanes from leguminosae species: Even carbon number preference

LAMARQUE, ALICIA L.; FORTUNATO, RENÉE H.; GUZMÁN, CARLOS A.

PHYTOCHEMISTRY

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Año: 1998 vol. 49 p. 731 - 736

0031-9422

GC and GC-MS have been used to study the distribution of n-alkanes in the seed oil from 60 samples of 43 Leguminosae species. The occurrence of high percentages of low M(r), even-carbon numbered alkanes was the most important feature in relation to earlier reports on plant hydrocarbons. The main seed oil alkane in almost all species investigated was hexadecane followed by octadecane, eicosane and tetradecane in decreasing order. All samples studied from the three subfamilies presented almost the same pattern with little quantitative and qualitative differences. The presence of this distinctive carbon range of aliphatic paraffins suggests that the inner conditions could lead to a change in chain-length specificity and/or activity of some enzyme systems.