Pinus jeffreyi

The aliphatic hydrocarbon heptane, CyHjg, has recently been discovered as a constituent of the oil obtained by the distillation of the resinous exudation of Pinus Sabiniana, Pinus Jeffreyi, and a few other essential oils. It is a highly volatile liquid of specific gravity 0 688 and boils at 98 to 99°. It has, probably, the lowest specific gravity of all liquids found naturally in essential oils. 

It is well known that dogs track better in humid air. Rodents find buried seeds better in wet soil. This is important in arid climates. After rains, yellow pine chipmunks, Tamias amoenus, and deer mice, Peromyscus maniculatus found experimentally buried seeds of Jeffrey pine, Pinus jeffreyi, and antelope bitterbrush, Purshia tridentata, better than in diy soil. The recovered number of seeds increased 27- and 15-fold, respectively. In wet soil, seeds take up water rapidly and emanate volatile organic compounds that the rodents exploit. By extension, variations in humidity in arid environments may have profound effects on olfaction-dependent behaviors such as finding food, social interactions, preying, and predator avoidance (Vander Wall 1998). 

Figure 6.13 Examples of the application of normal-phase, radio-HPLC to the analysis of de novo biosynthetic pathways in bark beetles (Scolytidae). Demonstration of sex-specific de novo biosynthesis of ipsenol, ipsdienol, and amitinol through radio-HPLC analysis of pentane extracts of Porapak-trapped volatiles from (A) male and (B) female Ips paraconfusus Lanier feeding for 168 h in Pinus ponderosa and (C) male and (D) female Ips pini (Say) feeding for 168 h in Pinus jeffreyi (Seybold et al., 1995b). Demonstration of sex-specific de novo biosynthesis of frontalin through radio-HPLC analysis of pentane extracts of Porapak-trapped volatiles from (E) male and (F) female...

Hubbert, K. R., Beyers, J. L. Graham, R. C. (2001). Roles of weathered bedrock and soil in seasonal water relations of Pinus jeffreyi and Arctostaphylos patula. Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 31, 1947-57. 

Figure 16. Experimental points and fitted curves of longitudinal and tangential shrinkages o/Pinus jeffreyi as functions ofjfibril angle 0. (Adapted...

More positive information was obtained, however, when diethyl [l- C]malonate was fed to Pinus jeffreyi together with inactive sodium acetate. The activity at C-2 (9%) in the derived pinidine was much lower than that at C-9 (30%) from which it follows that C-2 and C-7 of pinidine (8) represent the starter acetate unit and the carboxy-function lost in the course of biosynthesis must therefore be sited as in (13) rather than as in (14). It was suggested that the failure of (13) to act as a precursor might indicate that biosynthesis only proceeds via a A -derivative of this acid. 

Figure 4.6. Relationship between microfibril angle and longitudinal and tangential shrinkage in Pinus jeffreyi (Meylan, 1968).

ANDERSON, A.B., Monoterpenes, fatty and resin acids of Pinus ponderosa and Pinus jeffreyi, Phytochemistry, 1969, 8, 873-875. 

A further example is pinidine, isolated from Pinus sabiniana and Pinus Jeffreyi (Pinaceae), which is derived through the same pathway as coniine [6-8]. It was demonstrated that pinidine was formed in P. jeffreyi through the polyketide pathway by feeding experiments with labeled precursors [9]. 

Sandermann W, Schweers W, Beinhoff O (1960) Uber die biogenese von n-heptan in Pinus jeffreyi Murr. Chem Ber 93 2266-2271... 

Savage TJ, Hamilton BS, Croteau R (1996a) Biochemistry of short-chain alkanes tissue-specific biosynthesis of n-heptane in Pinus jeffreyi. Plant Physiol 110 179-186. 

Savage TJ, Hristova MK, Croteau R (1996b) Evidence for an elongation/reduction/Cl-elimination pathway in the biosynthesis of n-heptane in Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi Grev. Balf.). Plant Physiol, in press. 

Very few alkaloids of polyketide origin are known in nature, particularly in woody plants. Pinidine is one of them. This alkaloid has been isolated from the needles of the Pinaceae species Pinus jeffreyi, P. subiniana, and P. torreyana (153, 154). 

The wood turpentine of Pinus Jeffreyi was found to consist of 90 to 95 per cent, of heptane, with traces of limonene and citronellal. That from Pinus monophylla had a specific gravity 0-9702, rotation + 21-15, and refractive index 1-4771. In it were identified a-pinene, /8-pinene, and cadinene. The corresponding oil from Pinus ponderosa had a specific gravity 0 8626, rotation - 13-15 , and refractive index 1 4727. It contains a-pinene, /8-pinene, and limonene. 

---