Maple Family

Aceracem or Maple Family.—Chiefly trees, occasionally shrubs, of temperate regions with watery sap. Leaves opposite, simple and... 

The aril of the unripened fruit is richer in hypoglycin A than the fully matured aril. Both hypoglycin A and B are found in the unripened aril and the seed (Kean, 1976). These two compounds also occur in several species of Blighia and Billia (Hippocastanaceae) and in members of the genus Acer (Aceraceae, the maple family) (Fowden and Pratt, 1973). 

Nonprotein amino acids are most commonly found in the Aceraceae, Agavaceae, Amaryllidaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Fa-baceae (Leguminosae), Hippocastanaceae, Liliaceae, and the Sapindaceae, but are especially common in the Fabaceae. The families Aceraceae (the maple family), Hippocastanaceae (the horse chesmut family), and Sapindaceae are closely related some phylogenists have placed all three into one family. The distribution of nonprotein amino acids would tend to support this move. 

This is a north temperate family with some distribution in the mountains of the tropical zone. Trees are valued as ornamentals, as lumber, and, in northern North America at least, as the basis for the maple sugar industry (Acer saccharum). Of the species in the family, all but ten are assigned to the genus Acer. 

In good agreement with the order of the systematic taxa, the next level of similarity revealed by HCA is that of plant families, as illustrated by the examples of the Birch and of the Soapberry families (Betulaceae and Sapin-daceae). Silver birch (genus Betula) and Hophornbeam (genus Ostrya) are members of the Birch family (Betulaceae), and their spectra form one of the three main data clusters. Sycamore Maple, Norway Maple and Horse-chestnut are all members of the Soapberry family (Sapindaceae), and are also contained in one group. 

A relatively recent addition to the maple industry is the "Flavor Wheel for Maple Products" (Agriculture and AgriFood Canada, 2004), patterned after similar classification systems in wines and other food products. The Flavor Wheel for Maple Products (hereafter FWMP) contains 13 flavor families, including maple, confectionary, vanilla, milky, empyreumatic, floral, fruity, spicy, foreign (deterioration/fermentation), foreign (environment), plant—herbaceous, plant—humus/forest/cereals, and plant— ligneous. Within each family are one or more subfamilies of flavors,... 

The maples are about 150 species of angiosperm trees and shrubs in the genus Acer, family Aceraceae. Most maples occur in temperate forests of the Northern Hemisphere. 

As a very rare variant, in some cases biochemical and clinical abnormalities appear only during infections [88]. At most times the blood levels of leucine, isoleucine, valine and the corresponding a-keto acids are normal, but during febrile illnesses they rise and the urine acquires the characteristic smell of maple syrup. At these times the children become comatose or show other signs of C.N.S. involvement and some die. Peritoneal dialysis during acute episodes is effective and no other treatment is necessary. In the two families so far investigated [89], the leucocytes of the affected children had 12% in one family, and 6% in the other, of the normal capacity for decarboxylating the three branched chain Of-keto acids this activity is virtually zero in the typica] form. 

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