Information resources on tropical American fruits
Tropical American fruits are underutilized despite their diversity. Aside from pineapple, avocado and papaya–the most competitive in the international fruit market–most tropical American fruit produce remains in local markets and hardly competes in the international market. They could diversify the diet of new consumers and render income to resource-poor farmers but just a few have been studied and the information about them is scarce, scattered and not easily retrievable. In response to regional interest for developing fruit crops, the IPGRI Americas Group has developed a bibliography and an inventory of fruits from the American tropics for researchers, teachers and students.
The bibliography, retrospective to 25 years, contains 662 references with citation and Agrovoc descriptors. Records are split into nine themes including plant pathology (54 records), plant breeding (111), plant propagation (148), taxonomy and evolution (35), crop production (41), plant physiology (108), entomology (29), chemical composition (83) and floral biology (53). A full list of descriptors in English and Spanish is provided. It is available at www.ipgri.cgiar.org/publications/ pubfile+.asp?ID_PUB=578.
The inventory of tropical American fruits contains over 1100 species distributed in 66 families and 282 genera. It includes the species’ taxonomy, use, origin, geographic distribution, common name in various languages and research status (conventional and grey literature). The most important species are illustrated in color. Most diversity has been found in the Mirtaceae (101 species), Andean or temperate Rosaceae (74), Arecaceae (73), Sapotaceae, Passifloraceae and Leguminosae (approximately 55 species of every family), Annonaceae (39), Solanaceae (25) and Malpighiaceae (19). The Bromeliaceae, Caricaceae, Lauraceae and Lecitidiaceae are represented by important species such as pineapple, papaya, avocado and Para nut, respectively. The inventory is available at www.ciat.cgiar.org/ipgri/fruits_from_americas/ frutales/fruits_from_america.htm.
