2024 Author: Jasmine Walkman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 08:29
Pitomba is a small evergreen tree or shrub that can reach a height of 3-4 meters. It grows in Brazil. The tree has a compact growth with dense greenery and is quite attractive, especially when it bears fruit. The leaves are elliptical, lanceolate and have a shiny, dark green color on the upper surface and light green below.
The fruits are bright orange or yellow, with juicy flesh and a strongly fragrant slightly sour taste. The fruit contains 1 to several seeds. It ripens from May to June, and sometimes has a harvest in the fall. Fruiting usually begins around the fourth year after planting.
It grows in the Amazon Basin, but is also cultivated in Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela and Paraguay. Grows well in acidic soils, high humidity and prefers strong sun.
Pitomba is used successfully in pest control. Biochemist Maria Ligia Macedo from the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul extracted from its fruit a protein, namely lectin, which gives fungi and beetles that attack the most consumed types of beans in Brazil, and found that this protein reduces growth by 60% of two types of fungi and kills almost entirely the beetles that damage both plants.
If field tests prove the effectiveness achieved in the laboratory, this molecule could become an option in the fight against these pests and replace agrochemicals that are toxic to animals and human beings. This pectin is also effective against a fungus acting against Fusarium oxysporum, which attacks sugar cane leaves and coffee, as well as against Colletotrichum lindemuthianum, which leads to diseases specific to agriculture, such as dark spots on mangoes.
In this regard, Maria Lygia is considering the possibility of producing genetically modified plants from which to obtain pectin, which will be an alternative to large plantations.
Pitomba fruits are consumed fresh, they are also used for the production of jelly, various canned and carbonated drinks. Well-ripened fruits are processed into juice. They can also be made into jam or candy.
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