High-Oleic Palm Oil (HOPO) Production from Parthenocarpic Fruits in Oil Palm Interspecific Hybrids Using Naphthalene Acetic Acid

Abstract

Interspecific OxG hybrids of African palm Elaeis guineensis Jacq. and the American palm Elaeis oleifera Cortes produce high-oleic palm oil (HOPO) with low saturated fatty acid content. OxG hybrids are highly productive, grow slowly, and are resistant to bud rot disease. However, OxG hybrid pollen presents low viability and germinability, so assisted pollination is a must. Hybrids can produce parthenocarpic or seedless fruits, with the exogenous application of plant growth regulators. Thus, naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) effects on parthenocarpic fruits induction, bunch formation, and oil quality were evaluated. The OxG hybrid Coari x La Mé was used. NAA doses, frequency, number of applications, and the phenological stages for the treatments were defined. A total dose of 1200 mg L−1 NAA applied three or four times produced bunches with better fruit set, similar average bunch weight, and oil to dry mesocarp than those obtained with assisted pollination. At a semi-commercial scale, 1200 mg L−1 NAA induced bunches that consisted of 93% or more of seedless fruits. Bunch number (2208 ± 84 versus 1690 ± 129) and oil to bunch (32.2 ± 0.7 versus 25.3 ± 0.8) were higher in the NAA induced bunches than in the assisted pollination. However, the average bunch weight was lower (12.2 ± 0.4 versus 14.9 ± 0.6). NAA increased oil to bunch in 36% (8.7 ± 0.1 versus 6.4 ± 0.3). Thus, with this technology, it is plausible to reach more than 10 tons per hectare per year of HOPO. Potentially, without increasing the planted oil palm area, OxG hybrids and NAA applications could alone meet the world’s fats and oil demands.

Complementing assisted pollination with artificial pollination in oil palm crops planted with interspecific hybrids O × G (Elaeis guineensis × Elaeis oleifera): Is it profitable?

“…This implies that, per ton of fruit, an additional 69 kg of oil is extracted in Scenario 2, which translates to an additional 33.5% of oil per ton of processed fruit. This concurs with results reported by Romero et al (2021), who found that the fruits that were treated with assisted pollination had an OER that was somewhere around 20.5%. Once NAA was introduced, an increase of up to 5 percentage points was recorded in the OERthis means that an additional 20% of oil was extracted per ton of fruit (Romero et al, 2021).…”

“…This concurs with results reported by Romero et al (2021), who found that the fruits that were treated with assisted pollination had an OER that was somewhere around 20.5%. Once NAA was introduced, an increase of up to 5 percentage points was recorded in the OERthis means that an additional 20% of oil was extracted per ton of fruit (Romero et al, 2021). The Palmeiras extraction plant, when using NAA, reached an OER of 26%; on the other hand, the OER did not exceed 21% when the treatment was assisted pollination only (Ruíz et al, 2020).…”

“…In 2018, Cenipalma released the results of artificial pollination in O Â G palms, which consisted of applying NAA to female inflorescences during anthesis and up to 15 days after anthesis (daa). The experimental results from applying 1200 ppm of NAA in a liquid medium to inflorescences during and after anthesis found that it resulted in the development and filling of fruits, as well as a 15% increase in the number of harvested bunches (Romero et al, 2021).…”

“…In Colombian plantations, the adoption of NAA occurred by the end of 2018, and at the beginning, most plantation managers decided to implement only artificial pollination. It has been evident that the application of NAA results in lower labor yields compared to assisted pollination, because the same inflorescence is treated three times (artificial pollination) instead of one (assisted pollination) (Romero et al, 2021).…”

Assessing the labor productivity of two methods of artificial pollination in oil palm crops from Colombia

“…The oil palm interspecific hybrids Elaeis Oleífera  Elaeis guineensis (O  G) are currently among the fastest growing cultivars in terms of planted area in Colombia. Cultivation with O  G cultivars reached 68,000 ha in Colombia in 2018 (Romero et al, 2021). The main reason for the increased cultivation of O  G cultivars in Colombia is that some of these cultivars have some degree of resistance to bud rot (BR) (Navia et al, 2014;Ávila-Diazgranados et al, 2016), the most serious disease affecting oil palm crops in Latin America (Torres et al, 2016;Swinburne, 1993).…”