Cupuaçu under agroforestry systems: agroindustrial quality of pulps and the susceptibility to witches’ broom disease

Abstract

The cupuaçu culture is one of the most popular and important in the Amazon region. For family
and peri-urban agriculture and/or indigenous communities, it is a prominent figure in the composition
of production systems, as well as in local food security. There are few reports relating
the quality of the cupuaçu pulp and the different susceptibility levels of plants to the attack of
the witch’s broom disease, responsible for great damage to the culture. The objective was to
characterize pulps of cupuaçu plants with different levels of witches’ broom susceptibilities.
Differences were observed mainly in chemical and physical-chemical characteristics among
pulps, with emphasis on susceptible and highly susceptible plants. All pulps evaluated comply
with the quality standard established by current legislation. There were significant differences
between the physico-chemical characteristics, proportional to the susceptibility of the plants to
the attack of the witch´s broom disease, with emphasis on SS and AT.