FLAVOUR AND FRAGRANCE JOURNAL Flavour Fragr. J. 2008; 23: 115–120 Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/ffj.1864 Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Analysis of tissue-specific emission of volatiles by the flowers of six Camellia species Frédéric Jullien, 1 * Jiyin Gao, 2 George Orel 3 and Laurent Legendre 1 1 Laboratoire de Biotechnologies Végétales Appliquées aux Plantes Aromatiques et Médicinales, EA 3061, Université Jean Monnet, 23 rue du Dr. Michelon, 42023 Saint-Etienne Cedex 2, France 2 Chinese Academy of Forestry, Research Institute of Subtropical Forestry, 73 Dagiao Road, Fuyang, Zhejiang 311400, People’s Republic of China 3 University of Western Sydney, Centre for Plant and Food Sciences, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South, DC NSW 1797, Australia Received 25 October 2007; Revised 21 December 2007; Accepted 13 January 2008 ABSTRACT: Scent production is a rare phenomenon in the genus Camellia, which is otherwise very diverse. This study provides the ¼rst report of GC–MS analyses of the volatile compounds synthesized and emitted by six Camellia species belonging to three subgenera. Solvent extracts mainly contained derivatives of the terpenoid, phenylpropanoid and fatty acid metabolisms. Members of subgenus Metacamellia mainly accumulated 2-phenylethanol, while C. japonica of subgenus Camellia mainly synthesized monoterpenes and C. yuhsienensis of subgenus Paracamellia displayed a balanced mix of constituents. Headspace analysis of emitted volatiles con¼rmed the volatile composition and the rosy note of the scent of all species (due to 2-phenylethanol, (±) linalool and some of their derivatives). Analysis of dissected tissues revealed that stamens accumulated 3–50 times more volatiles than petals and that carpels and sepals were the weakest producers of volatiles. These latter organs were the main source of heptanol. Phenylpropanoid and terpenoid derivatives accumulated differentially in both petals and stamens. Tissue distribution differed among Camellia species. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. KEY WORDS: Camellia; ½ower; monoterpene; 2-phenylethanol; scent Introduction Camellia (family Theaceae) is one of the economically most important plant genera. 1,2 The genus comprises ca. 280 species whose interspeci¼c relationships have been de¼ned through cytogenetic 3 and molecular 4,5 studies. All Camellia spp. are perennial shrubs that originate from the subtropical regions of China, Japan and neighbouring countries. Although the ½owers are variable in terms of colour and size, they are characterized by having a large number of stamens, whose yellow colour contrasts well with the petals. Many species are used commercially by the beverage (various types of teas produced from C. sinensis leaves), food (eating and cooking oils), phar- maceutical and horticultural (garden plants) industries. The natural diversity has been enhanced by the creation of man-made cultivars via hybridization or somatic embryogenesis. 6–8 This wide diversity of uses is linked to the richness of the lipid, phenolic and terpenic metabo- lisms, with classes of phenolic compounds described in leaf tea extracts 9 and in petal pigment preparation. 10,11 Despite the large number of studies devoted to water- soluble secondary metabolites, no analysis has yet been conducted on emitted volatiles. The main reason for this is that commercial cultivars and species grown in botani- cal institutions are, for the large majority, not scented. Only recently have some cultivars, such as C. japonica cv. Ajiko and C. sasanqua cv. Narumi-Gata, been recog- nized as fragrant. 12 In an effort to characterize scent pro- duction in the genus Camellia, we screened the Camellia collection of the research institute of subtropical forestry of Fuyang (China) for scented specimens. This collection currently hosts 220 species that encompass all known 20 sections of the genus. We then analysed by GC–MS the volatiles emitted by the ½owers of the six fragrant species. The role played by each ½ower organ in volatile production was then assessed. These data shed light on the biology of plant volatile production and will help hybridizers to develop scented cultivars in the near future. Experimental Plant Material Camellia species used in this study (C. cuspidata Koch, C handelii Sealy, C. fraterna Hance, C. parvicaudata Chang, C. yuhsienensis Hu, C. japonica L. cv. ‘Scented Sun’) were grown at the Fuyang Research Institute of Subtropical Forestry in China. Additional * Correspondence to: F. Jullien, Laboratoire de Biotechnologies Végétales Appliquées aux Plantes Aromatiques et Médicinales, EA 3061, Université Jean Monnet, 23 rue du Dr. Michelon, 42023 Saint-Etienne Cedex 2, France. E-mail: jullien@univ-st-etienne.fr