Читать книгу Biotechnology of Fruit and Nut Crops - Группа авторов - Страница 169

Pineapple (Ananas comosus L. Merrill, 2n = 2x = 50) belongs to the Bromeliaceae. Pineapples are perennial, herbaceous monocotyledons with a short stem containing a rosette of long narrow leaves that are often spiny. The adult plant is 0.8–2 m high and wide, based mostly on leaf length. The leaves of some cultivars yield a strong white silky fibre used for making fabrics, paper or cordage. Plants have a dense terminal inflorescence coalescing to produce a syncarp formed by the almost complete fusion of many fruitlets. In the edible cultivars, hundreds of parthenocarpic berry-like fruits are present which can be eaten fresh or processed as a canned, crystallized or juiced product. Other uses are made of proteolytic enzymes, such as bromelain, extracted from the core and peel during processing, as well as secondary metabolites with antioxidant and biological activities of great value for the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industries. The fruit is surmounted by a crown of small leaves which may be used for propagation. Suckers and slips that arise as vegetative branches from the stem or peduncle axils, respectively, may also be used for propagation. The pineapple root system is shallow, rather limited and prone to damage from diseases and pests (Purseglove, 1972; Bartholomew et al., 2003).

Pineapple and its wild relatives are native to South America and A. comosus var. comosus was a major Amerindian crop, being used not only as a fresh fruit, but also for wine making, twine and net making as well as for medicinal purposes, and the rotted fruit for poisoning the tips of arrows (Coppens d’Eeckenbrugge et al., 2011). Pineapples were first observed by Europeans when Columbus landed on the inhabited island that he named Guadalupe (Guadeloupe) in 1493 during his second voyage to the New World. Subsequently, its uniqueness and desirable qualities, as well as the propagules’ ability to withstand desiccation and resume growth when planted, ensured its rapid spread and, by the end of the 16th century, it was a pantropical crop and accounted for significant greenhouse production in Europe (Coppens d’Eeckenbrugge et al., 2011).

In 2015 pineapple was cultivated on >1 million ha in over 80 countries, and 24.8 MMT of fruit were produced annually with a gross production approaching US$9 billion (Ming et al., 2015). About 70% of the world production comes from a single cultivar, ‘Smooth Cayenne’, which is highly productive and excellent for canning. The current fresh fruit market is largely composed of two cultivars bred by the Pineapple Research Institute (PRI) in Hawaii, ‘CO-2’ and ‘MD-2’. Notwithstanding the importance of the international pineapple trade, local and national markets in pineapple-producing countries are also very important, especially in the predominance of fresh products and their wider genetic basis, including ornamental pineapples with small, colourful fruit types.