Abeliophyllum distichum (Oleaceae), which is the only species in the monotypic genus and is grown only on the Korean peninsula, has a high scarcity value. Its five variants (white, pink, round, blue, and ivory) have different morphological characteristics in terms of the color of petals and sepals or shape of the fruits. Despite its high value, there has been no study on variant classification except in terms of their morphological characteristics. Thus, we performed a volatile component analysis of A. distichum flowers and multivariate data analyses to reveal the relationship between fragments emitted from five variants of A. distichum flowers with their morphological characteristics. As a result, 66 volatile components of this plant were identified by headspace solid-phase microextraction gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS), showing unique patterns for each set of morphological characteristics, especially the color of the petals. These results suggest that morphological characteristics of each variant are related to the volatile composition.
Keywords: Abeliophyllum distichum; HS-SPME-GC-MS; morphological characteristics; scents; volatile components analysis.