Chemical composition of natural colophony from Pinus brutia and comparison with synthetic colophony.

The compositions of colophony resins obtained from Pinus brutia Ten trees by three different methods (acid paste, carved hole and scraping) from Ayvacik, Gökova and Kemalpaşa in Turkey were analyzed by capillary GC-MS. The main components were the monoterpenes alpha-pinene, beta-pinene, and delta3-carene, and the diterpenic resin acids palustric, abietic, kaur-9(11)-16-en-18-oic and neoabietic acid. The synthetic colophony resins exhibited similar contents to those of the natural resins obtained from the Gökova and Kemalpaşa regions of Turkey. However, colophony resins from Ayvacik exhibited only half the diterpenic acid content as those of the Gökova and Kemalpaşa resins. Out of the three techniques, the carved hole method caused rather different percentages in the constituents of the essential oils.