Starch grains in a new variety of peach

Abstract

The Author reports that starch grains have never been found in the marmalades of green peaches analysed in the laboratories of the Instituto Adolfo Lutz within the last twenty years. However, it has been recently noted that under microscopic examination peach marmalades have yielded amylaceous cells similar to those of pumpkins, bananas, and sweet potatoes but without other typical histologic elements of these material. It was discovered that these amylaceous cells belong to a still unknown new variety of peach. After locating the source of this new peach variety in the city of Delfim Moreira, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, the author continued his observations and studies of the peaches, for three consecutive harvests, The new variety has the following physical characteristics: A medium sized fruit, oblong round in shape with yellow-white flesh, the suture is not pronounced, a small protuberant tip and a lack of red skin or red spots around the stone, Very small grains of starch are localized at a thickness of 0.2 to 0:5 mm in the cellular parenchyma of the hypoderm and in the first portions of the fleshy pericarp, It is not found in the other cells of the flesh. The reaction is present in both green and ripe fruit and is most intense in the cooked fruit. The author stresses the above findings in order to avoid the suspicion of fraud in the marmalades of these fruit and proposes the name of Prunus persica var. Delfim Moreira for this new variety of peach.