Domestication of the pineapple-guava (acca sellowiana) in south brazil

Abstract

The South of Brazil is repository of several native fruit species with great potential of commercial use. An example is the Pineapple-Guava (Acca sellowiana) whose fruits present high quality. Market tests carried out in in Blumenau and Florianópolis (SC) in the years of 2000 and 2001 showed that more than 90% of the pooled people considered the fruit flavor as good. There are reports indicating that these fruits were consumed by Indians from South Brazil since before of the Pre-Columbian age. Even considering this potential there are just scarce information on the biology, improvement and management of this species so far. In this paper we present and discus some of the features related to the natural genetic diversity in the diversity center the natural genetic variability found between wild and domesticated populations, as well as some advances toward the conservation, domestication and use of this species.