The marula tree (Sclerocarya birrea, A. Rich.; Hoscht
subspecies caffra, Sond) is a member of the Anacardiaceae
which encompasses 73 genera and 600 species (Pretorius et al.,
1985). This tree is distributed throughout Africa with its
southern most location in the lowlands of KwaZulu-Natal
(South Africa) from where it extends northwards through
tropical Africa into Ethiopia and Sudan (VanWyk, 1974). Of all
fruit trees indigenous to South Africa, the marula has received
most attention in terms of domestication and commercialization
(Shackleton, 1996). Several products such as beer, juice, jam
and jelly have been developed from the mesocarp and
successfully marketed, the most recent being a marula liqueur
(Burger et al., 1987). Despite the traditional and commercial
uses, the flavour constituents remain poorly studied, especially
for the pericarp. Ripe marula fruit can be consumed by biting or
cutting through the thick leathery skin and sucking the juice or
chewing the mucilaginous flesh after removal of the skin. The
ripe fruit has an average vitamin C content of 168 mg/100 g
which is approximately three times that of oranges and
comparable to the amounts present in guavas (Wilson, 1980).
Bark and leaf infusions are often used to treat boils, malaria and
diarrhoea (Shone, 1979). The seed oil is used as cosmetic and to
preserve meat (Shone, 1979).
Despite the several commercial uses of marula, the volatile
constituents of the fruits are poorly studied. As part of the
investigation on South African fruit flavours, we reported here
the volatile constituents of the marula fruit pulp and the intact
whole fruit volatiles.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:tut/oai:encore.tut.ac.za:d1000383 |
| Date | 01 October 2007 |
| Creators | Viljoen, AM, Kamatoua, GPP, Başer, KHC |
| Publisher | Elsevier |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | |
| Rights | Elsevier |
| Relation | South African Journal of Botany |
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