The taxonomic and nomenclatural history of the genus Ganoderma and related basidiomycetes is reviewed and compared to recent studies on its molecular phylogeny.A basidiomycete belonging to the genus Ganoderma can often rather easily be recognised in the field from the macromorphological characters of the sporocarp.The most important species and lineages can also be discriminated well by molecular phylogeny.However,the application of incongruent species concepts and the frequent misapplication of European names by chemists and other non-taxonomists have created confusion in the scientific literature.The identity of the species reported in the course of mycochemical studies can often not be verified,since no voucher material was retained.In this review,an overview on the most important types of specific chemotaxonomic traits(i.e.,secondary metabolites of the basidiomes and mycelia)reported from the genus is provided.Albeit certain triterpenoids such as ganoderic and lucidenic acids,steroids(e.g.ergosterol)and triterpenes(e.g.friedelin)appear to have some chemotaxonomic value at the generic rank,their relevance for species discrimination remains to be assessed.We propose that all important names in Ganoderma should be,as required,epitypified by fresh collections for which living cultures should be made available and that these should be examined by a combination of morphological,chemotaxonomic and molecular phylogenetic methods to attain a more stable taxonomy.
Christian RichterKathrin WittsteinPaul M.KirkMarc Stadler
In this study six Pinus L. taxa from Canada （P. strobus L., P. parviflora Siebold ＆ Zucc., P. mugo Turra subsp, mugo, P. resinosa Sol. ex Alton, P. flexilis E. James and P. nigra J. F. Arnold） were studied to determine on chemical characters of studied taxa. For this purpose, essential oil from needles of the six Pinus taxa were investigated by HS-SPME/GC-MS. 38, 33, 39, 28, 31 and 46 compounds were respectively identified from each species representing 95.90%, 95.07%, 95.79%, 96.20%, 93.05% and 96.25% of the oil. The results have given some clues on the chemotaxonomy of this genus and are of usable potentials of the plants as renewable resources. Although the essential oil composition of studied taxa showed chemical divergences because of climatical, seasonal, geographical and geological factors, but the major compounds of plant derivatives are generally similar and the major compounds are chemotaxonomical markers for studied taxa.
In this study, two Satureja L. species from different localities of Turkey （Satureja hortensis L. and Satureja boissieri Hausskn. ex Boiss.） have been studied to determine their taxonomic classification based on chemical characters. For this purpose, aerial parts of the studied taxa were investigated by HS-SPME/GC-MS. 28, 30 and 29 compounds were identified in S. boissieri from Sanhurfa, BingS1 and Malatya accounting from 90.80%, 91.31% and 92.67% of the whole oil, respectively. 26, 30 and 28 compounds were identified in S. hortensis from Adlyaman, Diyarbaklr, Elazl~ accounting from 93.20%, 92.85% and 92.42% of the whole oil, respectively, y-terpinene （30.4%, 26.5% and 32.1%）, carvacrol （26.4%, 25.2% and 23.3%） and p-cymene （10.5%, 13.2% and 10.4%） were determined as main compounds of S. boissieri in Sanhurfa, Bing6l and Malatya species, respectively. Carvacrol （25.0%, 34.1% and 32.1%）, thymol （28.2%, 20.2% and 28.1%） and y-terpinene （10.1%, 11.3% and 9.4%） were found as main constituents of S. hortensis in Adlyaman, Diyarbaklr and Elazl~ samples, respectively. The chemical distributions of the essential oil compounds in the Satureja pattern were discussed in respect to their chemotaxonomy and natural products.
