NEW flavors Peruvian cacao COLLECTION

PUBLIC RELEASE: 26-SEP-2011

New flavors emerge from Peruvian cacao collection trip

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE - RESEARCH, EDUCATION AND ECONOMICS

New cacao types with unique flavors that are distinctly Peruvian have been identified by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists. These new flavors could one day be marketed like wine, by geographical provenance.

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists at the agency's Sustainable Perennial Crops Laboratory (SPCL) and Systematic Mycology and Microbiology Laboratory (SMML), both in Beltsville, Md., and Peruvian collaborators found these new cacao plants during collection expeditions in 2008 and 2009 in the Amazon Basin of Peru.

ARS is USDA's principal intramural scientific research agency, and this research supports the USDA priority of promoting international food security.

The researchers found hundreds of new cacao tree samples during the trips. One of these, discovered by collaborators from Maranon Chocolate, was Pure Nacional, an old, very rare, and highly coveted variety that has garnered a great deal of interest from makers of fine-flavored chocolates. Chocolate is produced from cacao.

This industry covets new and unique flavor sources. Usually, cacao trees are found along rivers, but these gems were found at a higher altitude than normal, and in Peru instead of Ecuador or Venezuela.

SPCL research leader Lyndel Meinhardt and geneticist Dapeng Zhang collaborated with the Instituto de Cultivos Tropicales (ICT), a research center in San Martin, Peru, to identify the new varieties of cacao. The researchers are studying 342 cacao specimens collected from 12 watersheds and categorizing the DNA of the specimens.

ARS and ICT are helping Peru create its own niche in the chocolate industry by working with San Martin's Oro Verde cooperative and Maranon Chocolate. Peru's tropical conditions-60 percent of the country is covered in tropical forest-make it ideal for producing cacao, and specialty chocolates.

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Read more about this research in the September 2011 issue of Agricultural Research magazine.http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/sep11/cacao0911.htm

USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender. To file a complaint of discrimination, write: USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Ave., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20250-9410 or call (800) 795-3272 (voice), or (202) 720-6382 (TDD).

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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CACAO collection for combating witches' broom DISEASE

PUBLIC RELEASE: 15-SEP-2011

Cacao collection expedition may yield weapons for combating witches' broom disease

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE - RESEARCH, EDUCATION AND ECONOMICS

Fungi found in the leaves and trunks of wild Peruvian cacao trees offer the potential for biological control of cacao diseases such as witches' broom disease, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists. Several of the fungal species were previously unknown to science.

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) researchers at the agency's Sustainable Perennial Crops Laboratory (SPCL) and Systematic Mycology and Microbiology Laboratory (SMML) in Beltsville, Md., and Perguvian collaborators conducted cacao collection expeditions in 2008 and 2009 through the Amazon Basin Dapen Zhang of Peru. The Peruvian Amazon is the heart of the center of diversity for cacao and holds great potential for finding undiscovered cacao and fungal species.

ARS is USDA's principal intramural scientific research agency, and this research supports the USDA priority of promoting international food security.

During the 2008 collection trip to Peru, SPCL research leader Lyndel Meinhardt recorded the incidence of witches' broom disease in wild cacao trees in the upper Amazon region. The disease can cause yield losses of 75 percent in susceptible varieties. A team of scientists, including SPCL geneticist Dapeng Zhang, SMML mycologist Gary Samuels, Meinhardt and others, found that about 14 percent of flower cushions and 13 percent of trunks of wild cacao plants along the rivers were infected with witches' broom disease. This suggests that there is a high level of witches' broom disease resistance in these wild Peruvian cacao populations.

The fungi found in disease-free leaves and trunks of collected cacao tree tissue samples may provide protection against diseases such as witches' broom disease either by stimulating the immune system of the plants or through direct parasitism or antibiotic effects against pathogens. Samuels found several fungal species previously unknown to science in the cacao tissues. The potential for biological control using these fungi is being evaluated by SPCL scientists Bryan Bailey and Ron Collins.

Meinhardt, Zhang and Samuels collaborated with the Instituto de Cultivos Tropicales (ICT), a research center in Tarapoto, San Martin, Peru, to identify new varieties of cacao. The researchers are studying 342 cacao specimens collected from 12 watersheds and are categorizing the DNA of the specimens.

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Read more about this research in the September 2011 issue of Agricultural Research magazine. http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/sep11/cacao0911.htm

USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender. To file a complaint of discrimination, write: USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Ave., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20250-9410 or call (800) 795-3272 (voice), or (202) 720-6382 (TDD).

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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