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Chemical composition and cellular structure of corks from Quercus suber trees planted in Bulgaria and Turkey

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Abstract

The chemical composition and cellular structure of corks from cork oak (Quercus suber) trees grown in Bulgaria and Turkey were studied for the first time to gain insight into the quality of cork from areas external to the species natural distribution. The cellular structural arrangement of Bulgarian and Turkish corks was similar to Portuguese cork, but chemical composition differed significantly. In general, Bulgarian and Turkish corks contained higher amount of ash and lignin and lower amount of extractives than Portuguese cork. Bulgarian cork contained less suberin and more polysaccharides than Turkish and Portuguese corks. The differences in the suberin/lignin ratio (1.4, 1.1 and 2.0 in corks from Bulgaria, Turkey and Portugal, respectively) suggest differences in mechanical behavior, namely in compression. Suberin composition was similar in all corks, but differences in relative proportion of families and compounds were present, indicating natural variation related to cork origin. Lipophilic extractives differed between corks: Betulinic acid was the main triterpene in Bulgarian cork, while friedelin dominated the lipophilic extractives in Portuguese and Turkish corks. A new lupane-type pentacyclic triterpene was found in Bulgarian and Turkish corks.

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Acknowledgments

The first author acknowledges a postdoctoral fellowship from the FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia) Portugal. Centro de Estudos Florestais (CEF) is a research unit supported by the national funding of FCT (PEst-OE/AGR/UI0239/2014). Thanks are due to Dens and Pavlo for their help in the samplings in Bulgaria.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Estudos Florestais, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa, Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017, Lisbon, Portugal

    Ali Sen, Joana Ferreira & Helena Pereira

  2. Department of Forest Ecology, Forest Research Institute – Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 132 St. Kliment Ohridski Blvd., 1756, Sofia, Bulgaria

    Miglena Zhianski & Maria Glushkova

  3. Department of Silviculture, Faculty of Forestry, University of Forestry, 10 Kliment Ohridski Blvd., 1797, Sofia, Bulgaria

    Krasimira Petkova

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  1. Ali Sen
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  2. Miglena Zhianski
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  3. Maria Glushkova
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  4. Krasimira Petkova
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  5. Joana Ferreira
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  6. Helena Pereira
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Correspondence to Joana Ferreira.

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Sen, A., Zhianski, M., Glushkova, M. et al. Chemical composition and cellular structure of corks from Quercus suber trees planted in Bulgaria and Turkey. Wood Sci Technol 50, 1261–1276 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00226-016-0836-y

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