The relative role of soil, climate, and genotype in the variation of nutritional value of Annona senegalensis fruits and leaves
Janine Donhouedé, Kolawolé Valère Salako, Achille Ephrem Assogbadjo, Ana I. Ribeiro‐Barros, Natasha Ribeiro
Abstract
Annona senegalensis Pers is a multipurpose tree species valued for food and medicinal uses of its leaves and fruits in Africa. Although there have been attempts to document the proximate composition of its fruits and leaves, little is known about the relative role of soil, climate, and genotype on the nutritional quality. The present study evaluated the variation of the proximate composition in its fruits and leaves in populations from Benin and Mozambique. It further assessed the impact of soil, climate and genotype on the proximate composition. Data were collected from four populations genetically different and analyzed using descriptive statistics, analysis of variance (ANOVA), principal component analysis and redundancy analysis (RDA). Results revealed significant variation in the proximate composition of the fruits and the leaves between the studied populations. Moisture and lipids were respectively six times and 1.27 times higher in the fruits than in the leaves, while ashes, fibers and proteins were approximately twice higher in the leaves than in the fruits. Genetic groups, climate and soils were found to influence this variation. Soil (47.56%) and genotype (38.87%) better explained the variability in the proximate composition of the fruits and the leaves than climate (13.56%). Our study provides essential information that could be harnessed in the domestication and breeding program of A. senegalensis for its edible parts.