Identification and variation analysis of the composition and content of essential oil and fragrance compounds in Phoebe zhennan wood at different tree ages

Hanbo Yang; Shuaiying Zhang; Yunjie Gu; Jian Peng; Xin Huang; Hongying Guo; Lianghua Chen; Yongze Jiang; Minhao Liu; Xiandan Luo; Jiaxin Xie; Xueqin Wan

doi:10.3389/fpls.2024.1368894

Identification and variation analysis of the composition and content of essential oil and fragrance compounds in Phoebe zhennan wood at different tree ages

Front Plant Sci. 2024 Mar 26:15:1368894. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1368894. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Hanbo Yang^#¹, Shuaiying Zhang^#¹, Yunjie Gu², Jian Peng², Xin Huang¹, Hongying Guo³, Lianghua Chen¹, Yongze Jiang¹, Minhao Liu², Xiandan Luo¹, Jiaxin Xie¹, Xueqin Wan¹

Affiliations

¹ Forestry Ecological Engineering in the Upper Reaches of the Yangtze River Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, National Forestry and Grassland Administration Key Laboratory of Forest Resource Conservation and Ecological Safety on the Upper Reaches of the Yangtze River, College of Forestry, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China.
² Sichuan Academy of Forestry, Sichuan Key Laboratory of Ecological Restoration and Conservation for Forest and Wetland, Chengdu, China.
³ Sichuan Academy of Grassland Sciences, Chengdu, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Wood essential oil and wood products with special fragrances are high value-added forest products. Despite the availability of essential oil and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from Phoebe zhennan wood, their variation and dependence on tree age have not been examined. After essential oil extraction and wood processing, the yields and compositions of essential oils and VOCs in wood from P. zhennan trees of different ages (10a, 30a, and 80a) were determined. The yield of essential oil from 30a wood was significantly greater than that from 10a and 80a wood. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) revealed 672 and 41 volatile compounds, respectively, in the essential oil and wood, the majority of which exhibited large fluctuations in relative content and composition depending on tree age. Sesquiterpenoids, fatty acids and conjugates may greatly contribute to the main components of essential oil from wood. Almost all major sesquiterpenoid compounds, such as caryophyllene α-oxide, eudesmo, and cubebene, were identified in the essential oils from the 30a and 80a wood, and their relative contents were much greater than those in the 10a wood. The main components of the wood fragrance were sesquiterpenoids. The types and relative contents of sesquiterpenoids from wood increased with tree age. These results suggest that choosing wood from trees of a suitable age will significantly improve the efficiency of wood utilization.

Keywords: GC-MS; LC-MS; Phoebe zhennan; essential oil; volatile organic compounds; wood.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by Science and Technology Innovation Team Project of Sichuan Forestry and Grassland [2024LCTD0213, 2023LCTD0203]; the Key Research and Development Project of Sichuan Province [2021YFYZ0032]; the National Science Foundation of Sichuan Province [2022NSFSC1062]; the Forest Ecosystem Improvement in the Upper Reaches of the Yangtze River Basin Program [510201202038467].