Occurrence of steryl and wax esters in Dicranum elongatum

• Published in: Physiologia Plantarum
• Main Authors: KARUNEN, PIRJO, MIKOLA, HEIKKI, EKMAN, RAINER
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1980
• Subjects: Subarctic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1399-3054.1980.tb03303.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1399-3054.1980.tb03303.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1399-3054.1980.tb03303.x

Abstract The steryl and wax esters of the frozen subarctic moss Dicranum elongatum Schleich contained fatty acids 39.8 mg per gram dry green tissue. The content decreased with increasing age of the moss shoots, but no great changes were found in the fatty acid pattern of the esters. The major part of the steryl and wax ester fraction of the green shoots was made up of esterified sterols (85%), and the rest (15%) of esterified aliphatic alcohols. No great changes were found in their relative proportions with increased age of the shoots. Some changes were evident in the pattern of individual esterified sterols, however. The proportion of cycloartenol was lower in the older parts than in the green part, and the proportion of campesterol, stigmasterol, and β‐sitosterol were lower in the green part. The major esterified aliphatic alcohols were 1‐octadecanol, phytol and geranylgeraniol. The proportion of geranylgeraniol was highest in the green part and that of phytol in the older parts. The main alcohol of the surface lipids was 1‐octadecanol.