Lignans in flowering aerial parts of Linum species - Chemodiversity in the light of systematics and phylogeny

The lignan profiles of 41 Linum species as determined by HPLC-ESI/MS-MS are described and compared. Two major groups of species exist that accumulate cyclolignans mainly of the aryltetralin- and arylnaphthalene/aryldihydronaphthalene types, respectively. This division correlates strongly with recent findings on the molecular phylogeny of the genus Linum.