Pejibaye palm: Physical and chemical analysis of the fruit

Summary

The variability of the nutritional components of pejibaye fruit is fairly high and provides the impetus for further studies. These should be directed primarily toward the discovery of the highest possible carotene content associated with the least spines on the trunk.

The pejibaye, apparently, is frequently and probably obligatorily outcrossing, and the farmers almost always plant seed when they reproduce the tree. Therefore, good reason exists for the diversity we find. According to the correlation matrix calculated here, we have little hope of finding vitamin A on the basis of components which are simpler to assay than the direct carotene analysis. Among other characteristics, not readily measurable for statistical purposes, we find that the red fruits contain the highest amount of carotene. Subsequent to the analysis recorded here, a pejibaye with rare qualities has been discovered. Those very few trees with fruits that produce the red oil upon boiling may be expected to supply large amounts of carotene when they are analyzed, despite the lack of correlation between fat and carotene.