Camu camu
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Camu camu ( Myrciaria dubia ) |
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Camu-Camu ( Myrciaria dubia ) is a species of plant within the myrtle family (Myrtaceae). It is native to the Amazon region in Peru , Colombia , Venezuela , Ecuador , Bolivia, and northern Brazil. In Brazil, this type of plant is also called “Caçari” or “Araçá de água”.
description
Vegetative characteristics
Camu-Camu is an evergreen shrub or small tree that usually reaches heights of 3 to 8 meters but can also be higher. The trunk is richly branched and smooth with a thin, brownish bark .
The opposite, up to 12 centimeters long and 4.5 centimeters wide, short-stalked and pointed to pointed, slightly glossy leaves are elliptical to ovate, lanceolate. The entire leaves have glands. They are lighter and more matt underneath. There are no stipules .
Generative characteristics
The small inflorescences are axially and only carry up to 12 (mostly 4) flowers arranged in pairs. The fragrant, very short-stalked, four-fold and yellowish-white flowers are hermaphroditic with a double flower envelope . Ciliate, cup-shaped bracts and bracts are located directly on the flowers . There are over 100 protruding stamens and a small calyx. The one with the flower base deformed ovary is inferior with a long pen with capitate stigma . The flowers are facultative allogamous and they also carry glands.
The smooth, fleshy berries are round and greenish to reddish, purple to blackish and up to 2–5 centimeters in size. The soft, very acidic flesh is whitish-light pink. The fruits have a rounded scar on the tip. They contain up to 4 kidney-shaped to elliptical and brown seeds. The shaggy seed coat is thin, the seeds are up to 1.5 centimeters in size and without endosperm , they weigh about 0.4-0.6 grams. The fruits weigh on average about 9-13 grams, the proportion of the pulp is 50-65%.
The seeds are dispersed by water currents or endozoochor by fish. The main pollinators are bees.
Camu-camu blooms between July and September and bears from December to April.
Chromosome number
The number of chromosomes is 2n = 22.
use
Around 10-20 kg of fruit can be harvested per plant in culture. Their extremely high vitamin C content is remarkable, at around 1.5–3 grams per 100 grams of pulp or more. That is why the pH is only around 2.5. They exceed the vitamin C content of oranges by around 30–60 times and that of peppers by 5–10 times. Only the fruits of the bush plum ( Terminalia ferdinandiana ) achieve higher values .
The fruits are harvested in three different degrees of ripeness, depending on the use. Most of the vitamin C is found in fruits that are not yet fully ripe, i.e. are reddish-green.
In the Amazon region, camu camu is peeled as a fruit or consumed as juice and used with liqueur, ice cream, jelly, etc. a. processed. The main importer of the fruit is Japan . In Europe, camu camu is mainly found as a dietary supplement or as a candy. Camu-camu is now also grown in plantations . However, the South American cultivation projects are lagging behind the growing demand. This has led to increasing overexploitation of wild plants. One consequence of this is that in some areas fish species such as B. the Gamitana or Tambaqui , which feed on the fruits, have disappeared.
literature
- Food and Fruit-bearing Forest Species. 3: Examples from Latin America. FAO Forestry Paper 44/3, 1986, ISBN 92-5-102372-7 , pp. 201-204.
- Juan C. Castro, J. Dylan Maddox, Marianela Cobos, Sixto A. Imán: Myrciaria dubia “Camu Camu” Fruit: Health-Promoting Phytochemicals and Functional Genomic Characteristics. In: Jaya Soneji: Breeding and Health Benefits of Fruit and Nut Crops. Intechopen, 2018, ISBN 978-1-78923-273-8 , pp. 85–116, doi: 10.5772 / intechopen.73213 .
Web links
- Myrciaria dubia at Useful Tropical Plants, accessed October 8, 2018.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Myrciaria dubia at KEW Science, accessed on 8 October 2018th
- ↑ a b c d e T. K. Lim: Edible Medicinal and Non-Medicinal Plants. Volume 3: Fruits. Springer, 2012, ISBN 978-94-007-2533-1 , pp. 631-635.
- ↑ a b c d Juan C. Castro, J. Dylan Maddox, Marianela Cobos, Sixto A. Imán
- ↑ Anderson E. Medina Bardales et al. a .: Seeds and plantlets of Myrciaria dubia "camu-camu": biometry, germination, and initial growth. In: Scientia Agropecuaria [online]. Vol. 5, No. 2, 2014, pp. 85-92, doi: 10.17268 / sci.agropecu.2014.02.03 .
- ↑ Festus K. Akinnifesi, RRB Leakey, OC Ajayi and others. a .: Indigenous Fruit Trees in the Tropics. CABI, 2008, ISBN 978-1-84593-110-0 , p. 106 ff.
- ↑ a b Jan Šmíd, Marie Kalousová, Bohumil Mandák u. a .: Morphological and genetic diversity of camu-camu [Myrciaria dubia (Kunth) McVaugh] in the Peruvian Amazon. In: PLoS ONE. 12 (6), 2017, e0179886, doi: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0179886 .
- ↑ Eliana Gressler, Marco A. Pizo, L. Patrícia, C. Morellato: Polinização e dispersão de sementes em Myrtaceae do Brasil. In: Rev. Bras. Bot. Vol. 29, No. 4, 2006, doi: 10.1590 / S0100-84042006000400002 .
- ↑ Myrciaria dubia at Tropicos.org. In: IPCN Chromosome Reports . Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis
- ↑ K. Yuyama: The camu-camu culture in Brazil. In: Revista Brasileira de Fruticultura. 33 (2), 2011, pp. 335-690, doi: 10.1590 / S0100-29452011000200001 .
- ↑ Camu-Camu (PDF; 1.5 MB), on tropentag.de, accessed on October 7, 2018.
- ↑ James W. Penn Jr .: Another Boom for Amazonia? Dissertation. 2004, ISBN 1-59942-718-4 , pp. 45, 231, 244.