Macauba Research Project Universidade Federal de Viรงosa Brazil
The Macauba palm (Acrocomia aculeata) is a native oil palm of the tropical America growing in anthropic areas, especially in grazing lands of Brazilian Cerrado. Macauba palm displays intense fruiting which results in high fruit and oil yield (3.0 - 6.0 ton/ha/year). The most consumed oil in the world comes from the African oil palm (Elaeis guineensis). This oil is used in more than 50% of all products found in the shelves of the supermarkets all over the
FAT ACID Caproic Caprylic Capric Lauric Myristic Palmitic Stearic Arachidic Palmitoleic Oleic (Ô9) Linoleic (Ô6) Linolenic (Ô3)
world. However, the African oil palm has a high water requirement (2000 mm annual precipitation) for successful yield. This need restricted the African oil palm cultivation to regions of humid tropical forest, raising several environmental issues. Recurrent droughts in the last decades have also affected the yield of African oil palm. With climate change, this scenario could worsen jeopardizing food security and oil supply to the industry that depends on the palm oil.
MACAUBA CARBON PALM MACAUBA PALM KERNEL KERNEL STRUCTURE OIL (%) OIL (%) (%) (%) C6:0 ------< 0.8 ---C10:0 ------2.4 - 6.2 7.7 C10:0 ------2.6 - 5.0 4.7 C12:0 < 0.4 ---41.0 - 55.0 57.9 C14:00 0.5 - 2.0 ---14.0 - 18.0 11.0 C16:0 35.0 - 47.0 19.6 6.5 - 10.0 6.0 C18:0 3.5 - 6.5 2.3 1.3 - 3.0 1.6 C20:0 < 1.0 ---------C16:1 < 0.6 2.7 ------C18:1
36.0 - 47.0
61.0
12.0 - 19.0
10.2
C18:2
6.5 - 15,0
13.3
1.0 - 3.5
----
C18:3
< 0.5
0.7
----
----
Macauba palm is adapted to the environment with marked water restriction, requiring less water (1000 mm annual precipitation) than African oil palm to produce. Because of that it is regarded as drought hardy oil crop, alternative to the African oil palm. Macauba palm oil is similar in composition and can replace palm oil in several industrial applications such as food, cosmetics, pharmaceutics,oil chemistry, and biofuels. Additionally, Macauba fruit processing generates several byproducts like edible pulp bran, high-protein edible kernel bran, dense endocarp biomass, and husk biomass, all valuable products. In Brazil, Macauba is a candidate to become the main raw material for production of biokerosene.
Macauba is exploited in extractive way in Brazil and Paraguay. The Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV) has been working to domesticate Macauba to enable agricultural cultivation and large-scale production to supply industry with oil and by-products. The UFV is a leading agricultural education institute in Latin America with a strong research tradition and pioneer in Macauba research. UFVâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Macauba research program is focused in developing a sustainable Macauba crop system with inter-cropped plantations in degraded pasture areas. Today, 172 million hectares of Brazilian land are used for grazing. According to Brazilian Agriculture Ministry 30 million hectares of these lands are degraded due to poor land use, 6 million
To support the growing macauba industry in Brazil, the UFV research team develops projects in cooperation with industry in several scientific fields. The first challenge of the team was to germinate Macauba seeds. Macauba seeds have strong dormancy and germinate poorly. Studies conducted at UFV developed a protocol to break the dormancy and increase the seed germination from 3% to 80%. This achievement enabled cultivate Macauba palm in Brazil. Genetic of the seeds is of great importance in the success of agricultural enterprises. In 2009, the UFV began characterizing several native populations of Macauba in Minas Gerais. The best plants of these populations were selected and their offspring established in a germplasm bank. Today more than a thousand genotypes are conserved in the UFVâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Macauba Palm Germplasm Bank (BAG Macauba), which are subject of several studies. Macauba breeding program is in its early stages. After careful genetic diversity studies assisted by molecular markers and selection of superior genotypes, UFV started the first crosses between selected plants. The goal is to generate more productive Macauba cultivars.
in the state of Minas Gerais. The bovine eructation is another serious environmental problem. With 209 million cattle, Brazil has the largest commercial herd in the world responsible for substantial emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Macauba could be cultivated in these degraded lands in a Macauba-pasture-cattle crop system, recovering the degraded grazing lands. The restoration of degraded pastures improves the grass production and the shade provided by Macauba trees improves the ambience, all contributing to reduce the finishing time of animals. The shortening of cattle finishing time alone is projected to cut GHG emissions of the cattle farms by half. This, in turn , will make both the beef and Macauba palm oil industries more sustainable.
Macauba cloning can speed up the breeding program as the superior genotypes can be fixed through clones. But, Macauba cloning can only be achieved in vitro by induction of somatic embryogenesis. At UFV, Macauba somatic embryos are obtained from Macauba palm immature leaves. Planting System, spacing between plants and between rows, plant nutrition and fertilization are also studied at UFV. Macauba plants established in experimental plots have been evaluated for more than seven years to define the best agriculture practices to be recommended for Macauba palm growers. Harvest and post-harvest are important stages of Macauba production, to make sure the highest quality of fruits for the industry. In a recent study the UFV research team found that Macauba fruit is climacteric. It means that the fruit completes maturation after harvesting. The storage of Macauba palm fruit for 20 days showed to increase the fruit oil content in more than 10%. Finally, Macauba palm is a new oil crop with high economic, environmental and social potentials. The development of Macauba production chain creates great economic opportunities for investors, social services to society and environmental services to nature. In addition, it creates great research opportunities for the scientists.
Sérgio Yoshimitsu Motoike Associate Professor PhD Natural Resources & Environmental Sciences Phone: +55 31 3899-1351 Fax: +55 31 3899-2614 Email: motoike@ufv.br
Universidade Federal de Viçosa
Partners:
Departament of Plant Science Universidade Federal de Viçosa Av. P.H. Rolfs / Campus Viçosa 36570-000 MG / Brazil