THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The lucky colour for nutmeg farmers in the state is set to change from red to yellow. A recent study by the Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute (JNTBGRI) in Palode has found that Myristica fragrans with yellow arils is of superior quality than the conventional variety with red arils.
The globally reputed spices of nutmeg and mace are derived from Myristica fragrans, which is cultivated throughout tropical regions. India produces nearly 13,000 tonnes of the spice a year, of which Kerala’s share is around 5,000 tonnes.
The study was conducted by K B Rameshkumar, Mathew Dan and K K Sabu of JNTBGRI, in association with K V Radhakrishnan of National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology in Thiruvananthapuram and M Haridas of Inter University Centre for Bioscience, Thalassery.“The yellow variant is gaining acceptance among farmers in different parts of the state. This is the first scientific study to compare the quality of both the varieties,” said Rameshkumar.
The morphological features of the yellow-aril variant were similar to those of the red variety. The study found that the fruit yield of the yellow-aril variant was almost twofold, an average of 1,600 fruits per plant, compared to the red variety’s 900 fruits per plant.
The mace yield was high for the yellow variant, 3.5 kg/plant, compared to the red variant’s 2.5 kg/plant. The essential oil yield of yellow mace (19.3 per cent v/w) was more than twofold compared to red mace (9.2 per cent v/w). Aroma constituents elemicin and methyl eugenol too were high in the yellow variant.
“Owing to the high yield and high oil content with favourable constitution, the yellow variant can be popularised among farmers,” said Rameshkumar.