Chemical communication : chemical characterization of volatile constituents of urine of the southern African cheetah, Acinonyx jubatus jubatus, using headspace sampling and GC-MS

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:The cheetah, Acinonyx jubatus, sometimes referred to as the greyhound of thecats, is probably the most elegant member of the cat family. Formerly widespread insouthern Africa it is now threatened with extinction. It occurs in open savanna andlight woodland, but also hilly country on occasion. The cheetah is a predator that canreach speeds of more then 110 km/h in short bursts. With a mass of between only 40to 60 kg, it is not very powerful and cannot defend itself very effectively againstcarnivores such as the lion and hyaena, for example. This might be the reason why,in order not to advertise its presence, the urine of this animal is practically odourless.In turn, this might explain why no research has so far been devoted to the urine ofthis animal. In contrast extensive work has been done on the chemicalcharacterisation of the urine of many other carnivores, notably the lion.Extraction of the urine with dichloromethane gave too little material for GC-MS.SPME sampling of the urine itself gave insufficient sample enrichment. Better resultswere obtained when an SPME-type of headspace sampling, using a larger mass ofpolydimethylsiloxane, was employed although many of the constituents of the urinecould still barely be detected. The compounds identified include a large number ofketones, aldehydes, cyclic and acyclic ethers, carboxylic acids, amides two sulphurcompounds in barely detectable quantities, and elemental sulphur. Perhaps the mostremarkable result of this thesis is that it was found that the urine of the cheetah,although it is a carnivore, does not contain several sulphur compounds in relativelyhigh concentrations. However, it does contain elemental sulphur. Perhaps amechanism exists by which the cheetah can convert strongly odorous sulphurcontaining compounds into the less strongly smelling sulphur.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University