Silver fir, an ecologically valuable and indigenous tree species in many European Mountains forest presently is one of the most important conifers in Albania occupying an area of about 16060 ha or 9.3% of conifer forests.
The taxonomy, distribution and the variation of Albanian fir are not elucidated yet. In the framework of our chemical and biological investigations on the volatile metabolites of Greek endemic and Mediterranean conifers (Roussis et al., 1999; Petrakis and Roussis, 1997) we recently were able to collect and study a significant number of Abies alba growing in Albania.
Cortical oleoresin of lateral shoots and needle essential oil were analysed by Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry for four populations of European Silver fir (Abies alba Mill.) scattered in the area of natural distribution of this species in Albania. Based on the geographical variation observed between the populations and the seasonal variation within the provenance's regarding the terpenoids from needle essential oil and cortical oleoresin it was possible to shed light on the chemotaxonomy and adaptation of this species in Albania.
Seventy compounds were detected in the needle essential oil, while thirty-seven compounds were detected in the cortical oleoresin of all trees. Two different chemical profiles were detected. The monoterpenes, a-pinene, camphene, b-pinene, limonene and bornyl acetate was the main components of the typical chemical profile in essential oil. Cortical oleoresin mainly comprised three monoterpenes, a-pinene, b-pinene and limonene and two sesquiterpenes - b-caryophyllene and germacrene D. Among the provenances great quantitative differences could be found in the terpene composition.
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