From Plant
Resources of South-East Asia no. 2: Edible fruits and nuts, (PROSEA)
by J. P. Mogea and E. W. M Verheij
Taxon
Bactris gasipaes Kunth
Family
Palmea
Chromosome
Numbers
2n = 28
Synonyms
Guilielma speciosa Mart. (1824), nom. illeg., Bactris utilis Benth. & Hook.f. ex Hemsley (1885), Guilielma gasipaes (Kunth) L.H. Bailey (1930).
Vernacular
Names
Pejibaye, peach palm (En). Palmier-pêche (Fr). South America: pejibaye, chontaduro, pupunha, paripou.
Origin and
Geographic Distribution
The
pejibaye is native to the humid lowlands of tropical America and is now
cultivated in the Central and South American tropics from Honduras at
17°N through Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador and
Brazil to Bolivia at 17°S. It is virtually unknown in the wild. It has
also been introduced to other tropical countries including South-East
Asia, but has not yet become popular.
Uses
The uses of the starchy fruit
resemble those of cassava. The fruit becomes edible after boiling in
salted water. The lightly cooked fruit is dried and stored for 6 months
or longer, after which it can be reconstituted by further boiling.
Flour and meal for baking are also made from the dried fruit and some
is roasted or fried to make savoury snacks. Boiled fruit, some of it
canned in brine or vinegar, is sold in shops in Central America. Fresh
fruit may be fermented to produce alcoholic drinks. The seed kernel is
also edible.
Fruit of the more oily types is used to extract the
oil, usually only the oleic oil from the pulp; however the lauric oil
in the seed can also be extracted. The fruit (or residues from
processing) makes an excellent feed for poultry and pigs.
Being a
palm, pejibaye has many other uses; in addition to the fruit the palm
heart or 'palmito' is the most important product. Immature
inflorescences may be eaten in a similar way as the fruit. The trunk of
old palms can be utilized as ornamental wood, for fishing rods, bows
and arrows, handles for tools, etc. The soft part of the stem may be
used to make liquor. A cellulose may also be produced for cellophane
paper and rayon.
Production and International Trade
Although
the palm has always been planted primarily for its fruit in shifting
cultivation and home gardens, the first commercial plantations, about
1000 ha in Costa Rica in the 1980s, produce palm heart for export
instead of the fruit. Fresh fruit and preserves are important items of
trade in Central and South America, fresh fruit fetching US$ 0.15—0.25
per kg at the farmgate and US$ 0.50—1.50 in the market (Costa Rica,
1985).
In South-East Asia the palm is still virtually limited to botanical gardens.
Properties
The fruit has to
be boiled to remove a proteolytic enzyme inhibitor which interferes
with digestion. After boiling, the skin can easily be removed.
The
fruit is extremely variable, the edible portion ranging from 40—98% of
fruit weight; commonly it is 85—95%. Moisture content (25—82%, usually
50% or more), carbohydrates (14—85% of dry weight) and oil content
(2—62% of dry weight) are major variables, leading to a useful
distinction in starchy and oily fruit types. Protein content (3—18% of
dry weight, usually about 6%) is high enough to balance the nutritive
value of the fruit; of the 8 essential amino-acids only tryptophane is
lacking. If the fruit flesh has a deep orange or yellow colour, it is
rich in carotene; the content ranges from 0 to 70 mg per 100 g fresh
pulp.
Description
Suckering
palm usually with 4—5 trunks allowed to grow; individual trunks
slender, 10—20 m tall and 10—30 cm in diameter, usually with rings of
sharp spines, crown spreading. Leaves pinnate, about 3 m long; petiole
up to 1 m long, armed with spines; leaf blade with numerous leaflets,
crowded along a spiny rachis, arising in different planes so that the
leaf has a slightly plumose appearance with drooping tips.
Inflorescences appear among the old withering leaves, pendulous,
spineless, composed of slender racemes, 20—30 cm long, on which the
yellowish male and female flowers are mingled except at the tips which
bear only male flowers.
Infructescences with dense bunches of up to
300 fruits. Fruit a drupe, ovoid, 4—6 cm long, yellow-orange to red,
dry. Up to 5 bunches per tree at a time, each weighing up to 10—12 kg.
Seed 1 per fruit, conical, ca. 1.5 cm long, black, enclosed in the thin
hard endocarp.
Growth and Development
The
seed takes 60—90 days to germinate. The seedling grows rapidly,
increasing in height at the rate of 150—200 cm per year. After 21—27
months the trunk begins to form. Under favourable growing conditions
the stem bears 15—25 leaves. Leaves emerge with great regularity, the
interval ranging from 15 days in some plants to 24 in others. It takes
about a year for a leaf initial to reach the spear stage and leaves
also function for about one year. As a leaf declines and withers, the
development of the inflorescence in its axil accelerates and 4 months
later the inflorescence reaches anthesis. Harvest of the fruit follows
after 4 more months. The first bunches are produced within 3—4 years
after planting.
Pejibaye is a suckering palm. A few months after
germination the first lateral shoot may already appear at the base of
the plant, so that eventually a tight cluster of reproductive stems is
formed. It is not clear how the palm divides its energy between
fruiting and suckering.
Female flowers open in the late
afternoon and are still receptive when, 24 hours later, the male
flowers open for a few minutes to release their pollen before they drop
off. Studies in Costa Rica show extremely interesting and precisely
timed relations between flower opening and invasion of the
inflorescence by successive swarms of different insects, including tiny
weevils and scarab beetles, later followed by drosophilid flies and
Trigona bees. The insects migrate from one inflorescence to the next,
carrying pollen. Thus wind pollination may not be as important as it
was once thought to be. Self-incompatibility is common. Fruit set in
the few groups of pejibaye palms in South-East Asia appears to be good;
pollinators have not been studied.
Flowering tends to be
seasonal with one or two harvests per year and very little fruit during
the off-season. Since rapid growth of the inflorescence takes place as
the subtending leaf stops functioning, fluctuations in leaf abscission
offer the simplest explanation for seasonal flowering. Under improving
growing conditions the eldest leaves can prolong their usefulness, so
that the rate of leaf fall drops. When the season changes and growing
conditions worsen, leaf fall increases, releasing the inflorescences in
their axils. This explanation implies that the flowering peak(s) would
disappear if growing conditions — and hence the rate of leaf fall —
remained the same throughout the year.
Growth has precedence
over flowering. When a number of fruit bunches are growing — about 4—8
months after increased leaf shedding — and the load of fruit affects
leaf growth, the supremacy of vegetative growth is restored by the
abortion of inflorescences that are entering the stage of rapid growth
before flowering. This of course accentuates the seasonality of
fruiting. Inadequate pollination during a period of scanty flowering,
leading to poor fruit set (and high incidence of parthenocarpic fruit),
further reduces the off-season harvest.
Since growth has
precedence, adverse growing conditions mainly affect flowering;
conversely, improving growing conditions lead to a progressive increase
in flowering and fruiting. Hence the palm responds very well to
intensive care. It remains to be shown whether under ideal growing
conditions a bunch can be produced in every leaf axil.
Other Botanical Information
Three other Bactris species have edible fruits: Bactris maraja Mart. (the maraja palm), Bactris guineenses (L.) H.E. Moore (the Tobago cane), and Bactris major
N.J. Jacquin (the Columbian palm). The entire genus comprises more than
200 species, all in South America, but its taxonomy requires further
study.
Ecology
Pejibaye can be
grown successfully in the tropics from sea level up to 800 m altitude;
growth is slowed down at higher elevations. Temperature range for good
growth is 24—28°C. Abundant rainfall is desirable; the annual
precipitation ranges from 1900—6000 mm in the production centres.
The
palm can be grown on poor, acid soils, but on fertile clays and clay
loams the growth rate is higher. The soil should be well-drained.
Young seedlings may require partial shade for fast establishment, but the palms grow best in full sunlight.
Propagation and planting
Propagation
of pejibaye is usually by seed, although vegetative propagation using
suckers is possible. Methods for propagation through tissue culture are
being worked out. Seeds are obtained from plants selected for desirable
fruit characters, high production, and spinelessness. They are
germinated in a shaded bed containing loam soil. Alternatively, seeds
may be germinated in a transparent polythene bag placed inside another
bag to maintain a high humidity. This improves and speeds up
germination, prevents attacks by insects, and the plantlets can be
easily transplanted without damaging the roots. Moulds are the main
risk and the seeds must be thoroughly washed and treated with fungicide.
At
the 2-leaf stage the seedlings are transplanted in 2 litre black
polybags. In partial shade they grow rather fast and may be hardened
off at about 4—5 months. When about 6 months old they are ready for
field planting. The seedlings are planted in holes that are partially
filled with animal manure, organic refuse and about 100 g P well mixed
with the topsoil. Planting is done at the onset of the rainy season.
Planting distance is 5—6 m for fruit production and as close as 2 m x 1
m for palm heart production.
Husbandry
Care
and maintenance of the pejibaye plantation includes fertilization and
control of weeds as well as pests and diseases. Young plants are given
25 g N twice a year. As the plants attain reproductive age, they are
given 120 kg/ha N in three dressings per year, 100 kg/ha P once a year,
100 kg/ha K split in 2 applications, and 50 kg/ha Mg once a year.
Herbicides are usually applied only when the plants are already tall
enough not to be injured by the chemical.
Suckering has to be
controlled for maximum fruit production. In home gardens 4—5 stems may
be allowed per stool; for a plantation a single stem with a single
sucker is recommended. The sucker is kept to replace the stem in case
of casualties or when the main stem gets too high. When the height of
the sucker exceeds 1.5 m, it is cut out in favour of a younger sucker.
When it is time for a sucker to succeed, it is allowed to grow and the
main stem is cut as soon as the sucker bears its first fruit. In palm
heart production the number of suckers per stool depends on the spacing.
Diseases and Pests
In America diseases attack the stem, leaves and fruits of the pejibaye. The Phytophthora fungus may attack the stem. Fungi attacking the leaves include Pestalotiopsis sp., Mycosphaerella sp. and Colletotrichum sp. Diseases of the fruits are caused by Monilia sp. and Ceratocystis sp. The pests attacking the pejibaye include the sugarcane weevil (Metamasius hemipterus), basal stem beetle (Strategeus aloeus) and foliage mite (Retracus johnstonii). Diseases and pests in South-East Asia have not yet been studied.
Harvesting
Fruit
may be harvested green, but the taste is much better if the bunch is
harvested ripe, i.e. after the colour has changed. Normally the bunch
is cut with a knife mounted on a long pole; it is caught in a piece of
sack cloth held up by 2 persons.
For palm heart 0.8—1 m long
sections are cut and the outer leaf sheaths are removed, leaving the
last hardened pair to protect the tender core. The first harvest is
about 18 months after planting; ratoon crops can be cut after 6—12
months, depending on what palm heart size is preferred.
Yield
Current
fruit yields are low, in the order of 2—3 t/ha per year where cacao is
intercropped with pejibaye. Potential yields are thought to be 10—15
times as high and yields of 50—100 kg per trunk per year are not
exceptional.
For palm hearts the yield ranges from 4000—6000 hearts
per ha per year; the trend towards closer spacing and thinner hearts
may raise yield to 10 000 hearts/ha per year.
Handling After Harvest
The
fruits do not keep well for more than 2—4 days after harvest. If they
are not sold by that time, they should be boiled or processed in some
other way before marketing.
Genetic Resources
The
palm is very variable and through selection different types have come
to be recognized in different parts of America. Segregation of
characters in seedling populations is also very wide, including
spineless to very spiny plants, large variations in bunch size and
fruit size, colour, oil and starch content, etc. Extensive germplasm
collections are maintained in Costa Rica and Brazil and also in Peru
and the United States. In South-East Asia about 200 stools are growing
in a few locations in Kuala Linggi and Serdang, Peninsular Malaysia and
the palm is represented in collections in Bogor, Indonesia and Los
Baños, the Philippines.
Breeding
Breeding
work started in the 1980s in Costa Rica and Brazil. Ideotypes have been
defined for production of palm hearts as well as for fruit production.
It is expected that quick gains can be made in per ha yields of starchy
fruit or oil.
Prospects
Pejibaye is an
important traditional crop which is thought to have a great potential
in the modern world too. The fruit is very nutritious and high
potential yields may make it competitive with other basic food crops —
and perhaps oil crops — in humid tropical environments.
Short-term
perspectives are best for the production of palm hearts and since these
are appreciated in South-East Asia, this may be the way to familiarize
Asians with the palm, after which the fruit with its diverse uses may
gradually become popular in the region.
Literature
Asociación de los Nuevos Alquimistas, 1986. El pejibaye (Bactris gasipaes H.B.K.). Boletin Tecnico No 3, Proyecto Agroforestal ANAI, Talamanca, Limon, Costa Rica. 29 pp.
Beach, J.H., 1984. The reproduction biology of the peach or 'pejibaye' palm (Bactris gasipaes) and a wild congener (B. porschiana) in the Atlantic lowlands of Costa Rica. Principes 28(3): 107—119.
Blombery,
A.M. & Rodd, T., 1985. Palms - An informative, practical guide to
palms of the world: their cultivation, care and landscape use. London.
199 pp.
Clement, C.R., 1988. Domestication of the Pejibaye (Bactris gasipaes): past and present. Advances in Economic Botany 6: 155—174.
Mora-Urpi, J., 1983. El pejibaye (Bactris gasipaes H.B.K.): origin, biología floral y manejo agronómico. [The pejibaye (Bactris gasipaes)
H.B.K.): origin, floral biology and agronomic management]. In:
CATIE/FAO. Palmeras poco utilizadas de América Tropical. Turrialba,
Costa Rica. pp. 118—160.
National Academy of Sciences. 1975. Underexploited tropical plants with promising economic value. Washington, D.C. pp. 73—77.
Shaharudin
Saamin & Musa, M.J., 1989. Other palms, their potential in
plantation agriculture. Journal of the Perak Planters Association,
1989: 49—55.
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