Chemical composition of Tipuana tipu, a source for tropical honey bee products.

Tipuana tipu (Benth.) Kuntze is a tree from the leguminosae family (Papilionoideae) indigenous in Argentina and extensively used in urbanism, mainly in Southern Brazil. The epicuticular waxes of leaves and branch, and flower surface were studied by high temperature high resolution gas chromatography. Several compounds were characterized, among which the aliphatic alcohols were predominant in branch, leaves and receptacle. Alkanes were predominant only in the petals and the aliphatic acids were predominant in stamen. In branches and leaf epicuticular surfaces, six long chain wax esters series were characterized, as well as lupeol and b-amyrin hexadecanoates.