Ronaldo Veloso Naves

Caracterização de frutos e árvores de populações naturais de Hancornia speciosa Gomes do cerrado

O trabalho objetivou caracterizar arvores e frutos de populacoes naturais de Hancornia speciosa Gomes, bem como avaliar a distribuicao da variabilidade fenotipica existente. Populacoes de mangabeiras foram amostradas no Cerrado, incluindo os Estados de Goias, Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul e Bahia, abrangendo 109 matrizes de 35 populacoes das variedades botânicas pubescens, gardneri, speciosa e cuyabensis. Os resultados mostraram que, nas condicoes do Cerrado, as matrizes de H. speciosa apresentam elevados niveis de variacao fenotipica quanto a caracteres de frutos, sendo que a maioria dessas variacoes esta entre populacoes. Ha, tambem, uma grande variacao fenotipica dentro das variedades botânicas. H. speciosa var. gardneri e H. speciosa var. pubescens tem frutos maiores e mais pesados. A variedade botânica gardneri apresenta porte mais alto que as demais. Nas variedades gardneri e pubescens, predominam frutos redondos e verde-claros, enquanto em speciosa e cuyabensis predominam frutos de formato oblongo e coloracao amarelo-escura e verde-escura, respectivamente. As variedades gardneri e pubescens destacam-se como de maior potencial para a selecao baseada em caracteres de tamanho e massa dos frutos.

Início da produção de frutos de cagaiteira (Eugenia dysenterica DC) implantada em Goiânia, Goiás

The cagaita tree is a native plant of the Cerrado and adapted to the conditions of this biome, having as main characteristics the ability of growing and surviving in nutrient-poor soils and under a rainfall pattern with a pronounced low precipitation period. This is a rustic, ornamental, and highly fire-resistant plant. Its fruits are edible raw and used in many different types of processed foods. However, little is known about how long this species takes to enter the reproductive phase. This study is intended to assess the initial fruiting of cagaita plants cultivated in the experimental area of the School of Agronomy of the Federal University of Goias, Goiânia, Brazil, between 2003 and 2008, when the cagaita plants were five to ten years old. For the experiment, fruits were collected from ten areas of the Southeast region of the State of Goias and planted in a randomized block design with one plant per plot in four blocks, at 6 m x 6 m spacing. The cagaita plants showed a great lack of uniformity to begin to fruit. In the fifth year after planted out, only 5.2% of the plants began to fruit and after ten years, this number increased to 55.7%. Among these plants, only 6.8% fruited during at least four years of observation. Only four plants entered the fruiting phase and remained so during the six years of observation. The number of fruits per plant is very low; only 3.4% of the plants produced more than 200 fruits in the tenth year. The study showed that the number of fruits tends to increase as the plant gets older.

Caracterização física e química, fenólicos totais e atividade antioxidante da polpa e resíduo de gabiroba

The Brazilian Cerrado has a wide range of fruit species that have not been sufficiently studied regarding their physical, chemical and functional characteristics. This study aimed to measure the physical characteristics of gabiroba trees fruits and analyze the proximate and mineral compositions, total phenolic content and antioxidant activity of the gabiroba pulp and residue. The physical characteristics of greatest variability were pulp and fruit mass, especially the high pulp yield (46.24%). Gabiroba pulp and residue have high moisture and dietary fiber contents and considerable iron amounts. The gabiroba residue showed higher content of phenolic compounds (1787.65 mg AGE.100g-1) and antioxidant activity (197.13 µmol TE.g-1) than the pulp. However, the values observed in the gabiroba pulp (1222.59 mg AGE.100g-1 and 107.96 µmol TE.g-1, respectively) are higher than those of many fruits traditionally consumed. The total phenolic content showed a strong correlation (r = 0.9723) with antioxidant activity. The results indicate promising prospects for the use of the whole fruit of gabiroba tree due to its appreciable content of nutrients and phenolic compounds, and its antioxidant activity.