FLAVOUR AND FRAGRANCE JOURNAL Flavour Fragr. J. 2001; 16: 249–252 DOI: 10.1002/ffj.990 Needle volatiles from five Pinus species growing in Greece Panos V. Petrakis, 1 Christina Tsitsimpikou, 2 Olga Tzakou, 3 Maria Couladis, 3 Constantinos Vagias 3 and Vassilios Roussis 3* 1 Ministry of Agriculture, Department of Informatics and Biodiversity, Natural Resource Monitoring Group, Aharnon 381, 111 43 Athens, Greece 2 Doping Control Laboratory of Athens, Olympic Athletic Centre of Athens ‘Spiros Louis’, Kifissias 37, 15123, Maroussi, Greece 3 Division of Pharmacognosy, School of Pharmacy, University of Athens, Panepistimioupolis Zografou, 157 71 Athens, Greece Received 9 October 2000 Revised 10 January 2001 Accepted 12 January 2001 ABSTRACT: The chemical composition of the volatile metabolites from needles of Pinus attenuata Lemmon, P. heldreichii Christ, P. peuce Griseb., P. pinaster Ait. and P. radiata D. Don, growing in natural habitats of Greece, was analysed. By means of GC–MS and comparison with authentic reference standards and Kov´ ats indices, 43 compounds were identified. The chemical variability of the terpenoid constituents is discussed. Copyright  2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. KEY WORDS: Pinus attenuata ; Pinus heldreichii ; Pinus peuce ; Pinus pinaster ; Pinus radiata ; essential oils; chemical composition; chemotaxonomy Introduction Volatile compounds emitted by plants have been shown to act as a key factor in recognition and selection of hosts by many pest insects, 14,16,32 especially by those exploit- ing flowers and fruits. 8 In the context of biosystematic investigations of herbivore host–plant interactions, 25,26 we have initiated a study of the feeding preferences of the serious conifer lepidopteran pest Thaumetopoea pityocampa (Den & Schiff). T. pityocampa is one of the most important defoliator pests of pine trees in all Mediterranean countries. The occurrence of this moth in recreation and suburban areas also has health implications, due to urticarious substances, present in the caterpillar hairs, which can produce strong allergic reactions. 14,17,33 The high degree of genotypic variability observed in a number of Pinus species is reflected in the biochemi- cal variability, which is usually studied at the levels of terpene composition and isoenzyme variation. 4,12,20 The volatile constituents, particularly monoterpenes, have been extensively studied, since it has been demonstrated that the monoterpene composition, besides some non- genetic variability related to the environment, 10 is depen- dent upon the plant genotype and can be used for taxo- nomic purposes. 21 *Correspondence to: V. Roussis, Division of Pharmacognosy, School of Pharmacy, University of Athens, Panepistimioupolis Zografou, 157 71 Athens, Greece. E-mail: roussis@pharm.uoa.gr A total of 12 natural and introduced pine species is found in various phytogeographic compartments and altitudes in Greek provenances. The present study has focused on the needle oil composition obtained from five of the less abundant pine species found in Greece. The selected species were P. peuce Griseb. (subsect. Strobi Loud—Balkan pine); P. heldreichii Christ. var. leuco- dermis (Ant.) Markgraf (subsect. Sylvestres Loud.)— Bosnian pin; P. radiata Don. (subsect. Oocarpae Little & Critchfield)—Monterey pine P. pinaster Ait. (P. mar- itima Poire) and P. attenuata Lemm. (subsect. Oocarpae Little & Critchfield)—Knobcone pine. The first two are native to the area and the others are species introduced for afforestation purposes. P. heldreichii is a tertiary relic endemic to the Balkan peninsula and Southern Italy. P. radiata, growing mainly from the sea level to an altitude of approximately 400 m, is native to Califor- nia and Guadeloupe and it is widely cultivated in all parts of the world. It hybridizes with P. attenuata in the overlapping parts of their ranges, producing hybrids with intermediate characters. 7 P. attenuata, an intro- duced species occurring in pure stands on poor rocky sites, is indigenous to California and Southern Oregon, while in many parts it is naturalized and exhibits clinal geographic variation. 3 P. peuce, a Balkan pine of the mountains of Southern Yugoslavia and adjacent parts of Albania, Bulgaria and Greece, is regarded as a rare pine of south-eastern Europe. P. pinaster grows on mineral soil near the sea shore in the coastal regions of the West- ern Mediterranean region and Atlantic South-western Copyright  2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.