Seasonal variation of fatty and essential oil in terebinth (Pistacia terebinthus L.) fruit

Abstract

A member of Anacardiaceae family, terebinth (Pistacia terebinthus L.) is a perennial tree that is evergreen. Terebinth is spread on a very wide area in Turkey, from the Mediterranean costs to South-Eastern Anatolia. In the present study, to determine seasonal variation of fatty oil and essential oil in terebinth fruits, harvests were made when the fruit colour was Green (GF), Red (RF), Red-Black (RBF) and Black (BF). Upon ripening, fatty oil rate in the fruit raised from 13.40% to 37.08%, while essential oil rate reduced from 0.116% to 0.082%. In all growth periods, oleic, linoleic and palmitic acids made-up the main composition of the oil, and through growth there was increase in the amounts of oleic and palmitic oil acids while a decrease was reported in linoleic acid rate. In terms of essential oil compounds, α- pinene, limonene, p-cymen-8-ol and p-anisaldehyde composed the main compounds, the highest α- pinene rate was observed during BF period as 37.23%, the highest limonene rate was observed during RBF period as 22.01%, while the highest p-cymen-8-ol and panisaldehyde rates have been observed during the GF harvest period by 11.29% and 7.25%, respectively. In conclusion is that the fruit should be harvested during the black fruit colour, when the fruit is fully ripened, in order to get a good quality fruit and aroma and people picking the fruit from nature should be trained about this.

Keywords

• essential oil composition; fruit oil; fatty acids; ontogenetic variability; terebinth