Leaf volatiles from some wild tomato species

The investigated species are Lycopersicon cheesmanii s.str., L. cheesmanii var. minor, L. chilense, L. hirsutum s. str., L. hirsuturn f. glabratum , L. "parviflorum", L. chmielewskii, L. peruvianum s. str., L. peruvianum var. humifusum, L. pimpinellifolium and Solanum penellii . Wound-emitted leaf volatiles isolated and concentrated by adsorption on Tenax GC were separated by capillary gas chromatography. The different species produce different and rather broad patterns of volatiles especially compared to a modem tomato cultivar. There is also a considerable difference between varieties of the same species. When more than one accession was investigated, the results indicated a chemotype differentiation. The chemotypes are in some cases specialized with one or a few quantitatively dominating main components. L. hirsutum emits the greatest number of components. Three accessions had α-zingeberene, α-santalene, and limonene as main component, respectively. The investigated accession of L. hirsutum f. glabratum has 2-undecanone as main component, instead of 2-tride-canone previously identified as main component in another accession. Both compounds are natural insecticides. The results illustrate the need for basic knowledge of the chemical characters in the ancestors of cultivated plants.