Abstract: | The long-chain saturated and mono-unsaturated hydrocarbon content of the juice sacs of five mandarin cultivars (Mediterranean, Honey, Wilking, Kinnow, King) were examined. Normal homologues accounted for more than 47% of the saturated and more than 75% of the monoene hydrocarbons. In the saturated fraction the major hydrocarbon was n-C25 but in the monoene fraction n-C25 predominated in Kinnow and King while C29 predominated in Mediterranean, Honey and Wilking. All five cultivars could be differentiated from each other and from other citrus species by their hydrocarbon patterns. The noticeably high normal/iso ratios of saturated C23 and C25 hydrocarbons previously shown to be characteristic of mandarin species, Citrus unshiu and C. reticulata, were also found in C. nobilis and C. deliciosa. |