Use of cortical terpenes to discriminate Pinus brutia (Ten.), Pinus halepensis (Mill.) and their hybrids

Terpene composition of cortical oleoresin was analyzed by gas chromatography in 283 individuals from F1 and F2 Pinus brutia x Pinus halepensis hybrids, back - crosses and parental species. The objective was to explore the utility of terpenes in hybrid identification between the 2 species. Fifteen compounds were detected in the cortical oleoresin of all trees, 14 of which were identified. No qualitative differences were found among species and hybrids. Aleppo pine oleoresin composition differs significantly in the amounts of several major terpenes from that of Pinus brutia whereas the composition of hybrids was more or less intermediate between the 2 species. A cluster analysis of the data revealed the classification of alltrees into 7 major chemotypes. Occurrence of various chemotypes within parental species and hybrids in different rates has the result to separate the taxa and distinguish the hybrids.