Genetic resources of Chironji (Buchanania lanzan Spreng.): a socio-economically important tree species of central Indian tribal population

Underutilized Fruit Crops of Indian Arid and Semi-Arid Regions: Importance, Conservation and Utilization Strategies

Nowadays, there is a large demand for nutrient-dense fruits to promote nutritional and metabolic human health. The production of commercial fruit crops is becoming progressively input-dependent to cope with the losses caused by biotic and abiotic stresses. A wide variety of underutilized crops, which are neither commercially cultivated nor traded on a large scale, are mainly grown, commercialized and consumed locally. These underutilized fruits have many advantages in terms of ease to grow, hardiness and resilience to climate changes compared to the major commercially grown crops. In addition, they are exceptionally rich in important phytochemicals and have medicinal value. Hence, their consumption may help to meet the nutritional needs of rural populations, such as those living in fragile arid and semi-arid regions around the world. In addition, local people are well aware of the nutritional and medicinal properties of these crops. Therefore, emphasis must be given to the rigorous study of the conservation and the nutritional characterization of these crops so that the future food basket may be widened for enhancing its functional and nutritional values. In this review, we described the ethnobotany, medicinal and nutritional values, biodiversity conservation and utilization strategies of 19 climate-resilient important, underutilized fruit crops of arid and semi-arid regions (Indian jujube, Indian gooseberry, lasora, bael, kair, karonda, tamarind, wood apple, custard apple, jamun, jharber, mahua, pilu, khejri, mulberry, chironji, manila tamarind, timroo, khirni).

The Nutritional Potential of the Native Australian Green Plum (Buchanania obovata) Compared to Other Anacardiaceae Fruit and Nuts

The native Australian green plum (Buchanania obovata) is a small fruit that grows in the northern parts of the Northern Territory and Western Australia. The fruit belongs to the family Anacardiaceae, which includes the other agriculturally important fruit mangoes, pistachios and cashew nuts. The green plum is a favored species of fruit for the Aboriginal communities and an important bush food in the Northern Territory. To date, only minimal scientific studies have been performed on the green plum as a food. This review is about plant foods in the family Anacardiaceae and the key nutritional compounds that occur in these fruit and nuts. It looks at the more traditional nutrient profiles, some key health metabolites, allergens and anti-nutrients that occur, and the role these foods play in the health of populations. This provides a guide for future studies of the green plum to show what nutritional and anti-nutritional properties and compounds should be analyzed and if there are areas where future studies should focus. This review includes an update on studies and analysis of the green plum and how its nutritional properties give it potential as a food for diet diversification in Australia.

Characterization and cryopreservation of chironji (Buchanania lanzan)

Buchanania lanzan Sperg. (Chironji) is an important underutilized fruit species of north, west and central India. Seventy-four diverse accessions were collected from the diversity rich areas of India. Among the collected accessions, 52 have been characterized for fruit and seed characters. Successful cryopreservation of seed kernel and embryonic axes have been achieved using desiccation followed by fast freezing and air desiccation-freezing method respectively, with high viability up to 85% after cryopreservation. Comprehensive base collection of diverse accessions has been successfully established in the Cryogenebank. Morphological characterization with 20 variables representing 9 qualitative and 11 quantitative characters has been undertaken. All the accessions of B. lanzan were grouped into eight clusters, showing high level of genetic variability within the species. Two-D plot derived from PCA based on first two components showed four major groups, which was found less similar to the clustering pattern of dendrogram. Morphological characters, viz. fruit shape, length, width, colour, pulp colour, stone shape, stone colour; kernel weight and kernel colour represent maximum variability revealed by first three components identified for developing minimal descriptors. Five accessions, viz. IC-552921, IC-552924, IC-546107, IC-546109 and IC-553215 were identified as superior genotypes, which may be further evaluated and utilized as promising accessions for crop improvement.