抄録
The purpose of this study was to clarify the growth characteristics and starch productivity of wild sago palms (folk varieties Manno Kecil and Manno Besar) growing around Lake Sentani near Jayapura, Papua, Indonesia, as compared with the main cultivated folk varieties (Rondo and Para). Manno Kecil and Manno Besar were an early- and a late-flowering folk variety, respectively. Even when the number of years until flower bud formation, which is the optimum harvesting period, was almost equal, growth characteristics such as trunk length, diameter, and weight of the wild varieties were inferior to those of the cultivated ones. The starch productivities of the wild folk varieties were significantly lower than those of the cultivated ones due to the lower dry matter and starch percentages in the pith. On the other hand, the wild folk varieties had significantly higher total sugar, glucose, and fructose contents in the pith than did in the cultivated varieties. From these results, differences in the types of enzymes and their activities involved in starch synthesis in the pith between the wild and cultivated folk varieties might be suggested as the reason for the wild folk varieties’ starch contents being lower than those of the cultivated varieties. Regarding the inorganic component, the Ca contents in the pith of the wild folk varieties were significantly higher than those of the cultivated ones probably due to the differences in the degree of cell wall development in the pith cells.
