FATTY-ACID AND OIL DIVERSITY OF CUPHEA-VISCOSISSIMA - A SOURCE OF MEDIUM-CHAIN FATTY-ACIDS

Cuphea viscosissima Jacq. is being developed as a commercial source of caprylic, capric, lauric, and myristic acids. Germplasm resources for characterizing the genetic diversity of this species became available following explorations by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 1986 and 1987. In this paper, we describe the fatty acid and oil percentage diversity of forty-two populations of C. viscosissima collected from seven states within the United States. Caprylic (18.0%) and capric acid (69.9%) were the major fatty acids of these populations. The fatty acid percentage ranges were narrow for every fatty acid, e.g., 16.4 to 20.4% for caprylic acid and 66.6 to 71.3% for capric acid. The maximum lauric acid percentage was 3.4%. Oil ranged from 27.3 to 33.4%. Although the populations surveyed cover a fairly wide geographic range, they display limited fatty acid diversity. Surveys of germplasm from other parts of the range are needed to further characterize the fatty acid diversity of this species.