1) Institute of Forestry, Kneza Viseslava 3, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia, fax: +381112545969; e-mail: biljaizs@scnet.yu; 2) Faculty of Chemistry, Studentski trg 16, P.O. Box 158, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia, fax: +38111636061; e-mail: vtesevic@chem.bg.ac.yu; 3) Faculty of Chemistry, Studentski trg 16, P.O. Box 158, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia, fax: +38111636061; e-mail: dbajic@chem.bg.ac.yu; 4) Institute for Biological Research “Sinisa Stankovic”, Department of Ecology, Boulevard Despota Stefana 142, 11060 Belgrade, Serbia, fax: +381112761433; e-mail: bojovic@ibiss.bg.ac.yu; 5) Faculty of Biology, Institute of Botany and Botanical Garden “Jevremovac”, University of Belgrade, Studentski trg 16, P.O. Box 158, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia, fax: +381113342114; e-mail: pdmarin@bfbot.bg.ac.yu. Published in Khimiya Prirodnykh Soedinenii, No. 4, pp. 424-425, July-August, 2008. Original article submitted February 5, 2007. 0009-3130/08/4404-0526 © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 526 Chemistry of Natural Compounds, Vol. 44, No. 4, 2008 NEEDLE ESSENTIAL OIL COMPOSITION OF Picea omorika VAR. vukomanii B. Nikolic, 1* V. Tesevic 2 , D. Bajic, 3 UDC 547.913 S. Bojovic, 4 and P. D. Marin 5 Serbian spruce, Picea omorika (Pancic) Purkyne (Pinaceae), is a relic and endemic tree species with a fragmented natural distribution in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina [1], considered as vulnerable by IUCN [2]. It is geographically isolated, and a very small natural population (up to 30 trees) is a variety named Vukoman’s Serbian spruce (Picea omorika (Pancic) Purkyne var. vukomanii Pavlovic et Matovic) in the Milesevka Kanyon (Serbia), which differs clearly from P. omorika var. omorika (var. serbica) in morphological characteristics of habitus, branches, and needles [3, 4]. Serbian spruce oleoresin and the essential oil composition of twigs or needles have been studied [5-13], but almost all listed researches dealt with a small number of isolated components except [11] (41 identified compounds). Some population studies of P. omorika have been published [14-15], but, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first investigation of the variability of the essential oil of P. omorika from natural stands on the population level, and the first report of the essential oil composition of P. omorika var. vukomanii. The chemical composition of the essential oil of Picea omorika var. vukomanii is presented in Table. Forty-seven compounds are identified, comprising 99.7% of the oil. The main ones, each with abundance more than 10% [16], are three monoterpenes: bornyl acetate, camphene, and α-pinene. They comprise 74.2% of the essential oil mass. Twelve components have a medium high content (abundance 0.5-10%). Traces comprise only 3.8% of the essential oil. The total amounts of monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes, and diterpenes are 88.5%, 7.1%, and 3.6%, respectively. The variation of each compound is listed as the value of the standard deviation (SD) (Table). Eight compounds (tricyclene, α-pinene, camphene, β-pinene, myrcene, limonene, borneol, and δ-cadinene) show similarity to the normal distribution (χ 2 = from 7.33 to 16.67, P>0.05) but the rest show deviation from such a distribution (χ 2 = from 20.66 to 175, P<0.05). This picture has been found in some conifer species in a considerably higher number of samples than ours, suggesting genetic control of the levels of these terpenes [17]. ACKNOWLEDGMENT This research was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Science and Environmental Protection of Serbia (projects 143049B and 142053).