Volatile sulphides in subgenus Allium, sections Allium and, Cepa and, their use in numerical taxonomy

A. H. Abdul Wahab

Abstract

Using gas-liquid chromatography, determinations were made on the proportions and concentrations of volatile sulphides from chopped tissues of 24 accessions of Allium belonging to sections Allium and Cepa. lt could be said that species in sect. Cepa share essentially the same volatile spectrum pattern. On the other hand, species in sect. Allium do not show similar volatile pattern. Some species in sect. Allium possess volatile distribution patterns similar to those species in sect. Cepa while in other species, the volatile distribution patterns are similar to that of A. sativum, the volatile distribution pattern of which is usually considered to be typical for sect. Allium. On the whole, it could be concluded that the distribution of volatile sulphides in the bulbs of various Allium species did not show clear-cut delimitation between the species or sections.

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