Chemovariations in Hypenia essential oils under infrageneric and phenological influences

Abstract

The essential oils (EOs) of six Hypenia species that are endemic in the central Brazilian Cerrado were assessed by GC/MS and chemometric analysis. EO variations according to two taxonomic sections, combined with two phenophases (vegetative and reproductive), showed that 23.2% of total variance was explained by such predictors. Variation partitioning showed that the largest pure contribution was attributed to section (43.7%), followed by phenophase (39.3%), with 17% of joint influence. A multivariate regression tree (MRT) indicated that 13 EO constituents may be potential chemomarkers for distinguishing sections and two developmental stages in the genus.