Estudos em mirtáceas em quatro municípios do Recôncavo da Bahia

Abstract

Brazil is one of the main centers of genetic diversity of fruit crops, highlighting those from the Myrtaceae family. Therefore, the objective of the present work was to carry out studies regarding the occurrence of Myrtaceae species, the jambo fruit, in particular, by the characterization of fruits and germination processes of seeds from genotypes from the Reconcavo Region of Bahia. A survey was carried out for five Myrtaceae species (araça fruit, guabiroba fruit, jaboticaba fruit, jambo fruit and pitanga fruit) in adult phase in four counties located in the Reconcavo Region of Bahia (Cruz das Almas, Muritiba, Sapeaçu and São Felipe), between 2009 and 2010. The 461 araça fruit, 458 jambo fruit, 73 pitanga fruit, 53 jaboticaba fruit and 35 guabirobeira fruit plants were georeferenced by GPS. Forty red jambo fruit genotypes were evaluated as to plant, fruit and seed germination characteristics. The fruit characterization formed three groups in the jambo fruit population, demonstrating variability for fruit, seed and pulp mass and longitudinal and transversal diameter of seed, days until beginning of emergence, emergence percentage, emergence speed index, number of plants per seed and polyembryonic percentage, being considered a species with high polyembryony. Evaluation of the centesimal composition and of the minerals in composite pulp samples from different jambo fruit genotypes showed that it has potential for industrialization due to high pulp yield and technological index and as an excellent source of vitamin C, manganese and zinc.