Oenocarpus bacaba
| Bacaba (Oenocarpus bacaba) | |
|---|---|
| |
| Scientific name | Oenocarpus bacaba |
| Common names | Bacaba; bacaba-açu; bacaba verdadeira; turu palm; ungurahui; camon; koemboe; manoco; punáma |
| Genus | Oenocarpus |
| Family | Arecaceae |
| Order | Arecales |
| Native range | Southern tropical America: Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela |
| Habit | Solitary palm, mature height commonly 20–25 m with a trunk about 15–25 cm across |
| Fruit | Globose to ellipsoid drupe, dark red-purple to violet-black when ripe, about 1.4–2 cm across |
| Propagation | Seed |
| Years to fruit | About 6 years, from about 3–4 m height |
Oenocarpus bacaba, known in Brazil as bacaba or bacaba-açu and in English as the turu palm, is the accepted name for a solitary Amazonian palm of the family Arecaceae.[1][2] It is native to wet-tropical northern South America, where the dark purple fruit is processed into a popular chilled drink called bacaba wine and pressed for oil.[2][3][4]
Description[edit | edit source]
Reported mature size varies. A reference account gives a palm reaching 20–25 m on a trunk 15–25 cm thick,[5] while a compiled review lists 7–20 m with a trunk of 15–25 cm and a grower guide gives about 18 m with a trunk up to 30 cm.[6][7] The crown carries pinnate leaves with drooping leaflets around a long, dark green to violet sheath, and the palm is monoecious.[5][3]
The fruit is a globose to ellipsoid drupe, dark red-purple turning violet-black when ripe, about 1.4–2 cm in diameter and 1.5–3 g, with a single seed inside a fibrous endocarp and a mesocarp only about 1–1.5 mm thick, creamy white, oily and fibrous.[6][3] The species is easily confused with the related Oenocarpus bataua (milpeso or seje, with larger fruit and pinnae held in one plane) and with O. distichus (bacaba-de-leque), and fruit sold as bacaba may carry either identity.[3][4] Recorded heterotypic synonyms include Oenocarpus grandis, O. hoppii and O. bacaba var. grandis; the name Areca bacaba is an invalidly published (nomen nudum) record.[2]
Cultivation[edit | edit source]
In Brazil the palm is most frequent in Pará and Amazonas, on poor, clayey, non-flooded soils. It can grow in shade but prefers more open sites, resists fire, and is commonly kept in secondary forest (capoeira), pastures, yards and roças; recorded density ranges from about 1–20 plants per hectare in high forest to 20–50 in secondary forest, and commercial plantings are difficult to find.[4]
Soil and water[edit | edit source]
The native record is for poor, clayey, non-flooded ground rather than floodplain or waterlogged soil.[4] A grower guide recommends sandy, well-drained soil of the Amazon-basin type and watering well in dry conditions.[7] As a habitat-based starting point, treat freely draining soil with steady moisture during establishment as reasonable, and confirm drainage and irrigation for the individual site rather than assuming a fixed requirement.[4]
Sun and humidity[edit | edit source]
The species withstands shade but grows better in open sites, and is found regenerating in secondary forest and pasture.[4] The grower guide places it in full sun to partial shade in frost-free areas (listed for USDA zone 9b).[7] Its native setting is the humid wet tropical biome; in drier or cooler gardens, open, airy sites with frost protection match the habitat record better than closed shade or damp, still positions.[2][4]
Seasonal changes[edit | edit source]
In Pará the palms flower from June to August and the fruit ripens from December to April during the rainy period, with off-season fruit not rare; a compiled review places fruiting from January to April.[4][6] Ripening reliably outside the local açaí season is a market advantage in Pará, where the bacaba harvest fills the February–July gap in açaí supply.[8] In cultivation the main crop matures in the wet season; keep moisture steady through fruit fill, and expect one main bunch a year rather than continuous bearing.[4]
Propagation[edit | edit source]
Seed is the documented propagation route. A nursery study in Manaus soaked fruit for 24 hours in water, then for 30 minutes in 40 °C water, depulped and washed the seed, and sowed it about 3 cm deep in washed sand under 50% shade cloth with daily watering; germination began 7 days after sowing and finished at 35 days, with seedlings completing the first eophyll stage at about 125 days.[9] An institutional field record describes germination spread over 2–3 months and slow seedling growth with shade needed.[4] A reference account gives germination in 60–120 days with slow growth.[5] The grower guide recommends planting seed 2 cm deep in sand and vermiculite at about 30 °C, kept moist rather than wet, and describes the palm as fast growing.[7] Reported germination spans differ by protocol and seedlot.
Flowering, fruiting, and harvest[edit | edit source]
The palm is monoecious and flowers over the June–August period in the Pará record, with most fruit ripening December–April in the rainy season.[4] A compiled review places the fruiting period from January to April.[6] Fruiting begins at about six years, when the trunk reaches about 3–4 m, with slow early growth.[4][5]
Reported yields differ widely between records. A reference account gives about 2500 fruit per bunch, bunches usually weighing 3–4 kg and occasionally up to 10 kg, and describes the species as among the highest fruit producers in central Amazonia.[5] An institutional field record for Pará reports one to three bunches a year — generally one — with each bunch about 20 kg of fruit and productive palms roughly doubling that, and notes the bacaba inflorescence flowers several times more than açaí's.[4] A compiled review cites production up to about 8 kg of fruit per plant per year.[6] Regional practice gathers the fruit in the early morning before washing and maceration.[3]
Fruit and uses[edit | edit source]
The mesocarp can be eaten after removing the skin and briefly heating the fruit in water.[7][3] The usual processing route for bacaba wine is to soften fruit in hot or warm water for about an hour, then crush and strain the mass, serving the drink chilled with sugar and often cassava or tapioca flour; the same paste goes into ice cream, popsicles and a chilled beverage, and the flavor has been compared to avocado.[3][4][5] Oil is obtained by pounding the softened fruit, warming the mass in water and skimming it off; bacaba oil is used in cooking and soap-making and is described as considerably oilier than açaí oil, with regional cosmetic use of the seed oil.[4][3] The palm heart is eaten fresh, but harvesting it, or the young leaves used for brooms, stops fruit production on that palm.[4]
Composition figures are lot-specific; each study below is cited with its basis. One fresh pulp lot from the Belém area analysed by AOAC methods in triplicate was lightly acidic (pH 5.27), about 84% water, with about 9.1 g/100 g lipids, 5.6 g/100 g dietary fibre and about 107 kcal/100 g, and its suspensions behaved as pseudoplastic fluids.[8] A freeze-dried market lot from Palmas, Tocantins, contained (dry basis) about 7.4 g/100 g protein, 33.1 g/100 g lipids, 4.3 g/100 g ash and 50.5 g/100 g total dietary fibre and was classified as high-fibre; published lipid values for other lots range from about 21 to 28 g/100 g, differences attributed to maturity and growing conditions.[10] Peel, a processing by-product, from a Mato Grosso lot analysed on a dry basis held about 29 g/100 g lipids, 583 mg/100 g potassium, total phenolics of about 42 mg GAE/g and 37 mg/100 g anthocyanins, with an in-vitro DPPH antioxidant IC50 of about 1.07 mg/mL.[11] Artisan-made pulp from Roraima had low total pectin, indicating it is not well suited to jams and jellies without added gelling agents; phenolic and anthocyanin contents declined over five days of refrigerated storage but remained relatively high.[12]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ [1] GBIF Species Match API: Oenocarpus bacaba. Accepted exact species match; identity and status.
- ↑ [2] Kew Plants of the World Online: Oenocarpus bacaba. Accepted name, native range, wet-tropical biome, synonyms; first published 1823.
- ↑ [3] Bacaba (Oenocarpus bacaba) — DelAmazonas. Regional account of names, form, fruit, processing traditions, and distinction from Oenocarpus bataua.
- ↑ [4] Cymerys & Ferreira, "Bacaba" in Frutíferas e Plantas Úteis na Vida Amazônica (CIFOR/Imazon/Embrapa). Original field record: Pará/Amazonas habitat, phenology, production weights, management, oil and processing.
- ↑ [5] Wikipedia: Oenocarpus bacaba. Reference summary: morphology, monoecious habit, bunch yields, bearing age, seed germination span, flavor.
- ↑ [6] Santos et al. 2022, "Nutritional Composition and Bioactive Compounds of Native Brazilian Fruits of the Arecaceae Family", Nutrients 14. Compiled review: morphological range, fruiting period, production and composition figures.
- ↑ [7] Palmpedia Palm Grower's Guide: Oenocarpus bacaba. Grower-oriented culture, germination and hardiness-zone guidance.
- ↑ [8] Nascimento et al. 2019, "Caracterização físico-química da polpa de bacaba...", Revista Brasileira de Tecnologia Agroindustrial 13(1). Original AOAC-method pulp analysis of a Belém-area lot; notes the February–July harvest gap relative to açaí supply in Pará.
- ↑ [9] Queiroz & Bianco 2009, "Morfologia e desenvolvimento germinativo de Oenocarpus bacaba", Revista Árvore 33(6). Original nursery-germination study (Manaus): pretreatment, sowing depth, shade, germination and seedling chronology.
- ↑ [10] de Cól et al. 2018, "Composição centesimal da polpa de bacaba (Oenocarpus bacaba) liofilizada", 6th Food Safety Symposium proceedings. Original centesimal analysis (dry basis) of a Palmas-TO lot.
- ↑ [11] Corrêa et al. 2019, "Centesimal and mineral composition and antioxidant activity of the bacaba fruit peel", Bioscience Journal 35(2). Original peel composition, minerals, phenolics and anthocyanins of a Sinop-MT lot.
- ↑ [12] Neves et al. 2015, "Qualidade de frutos processados artesanalmente de açaí e bacaba", Revista Brasileira de Fruticultura 37(3). Original artisan-pulp quality and cold-storage study (Roraima): pectin and bioactive-compound behavior.
Image credits[edit | edit source]
- Palma de bacaba.jpg — bacaba palm with its fruits (Oenocarpus bacaba): Agcandrei, file page, CC BY-SA 4.0.
