MINOR EDIBLE FRUITS OF BANGLADESH

Minor edible fruits are the genetic resource of a country, playing a vital role as food, nutrition and medicine. Bangladesh having both tropical and sub-tropical climatic condition possesses a large number of species that produce minor edible fruits. The present study represents 255 species of minor edible fruit yielding plants of Bangladesh. Of them, 242 species belong to 58 families of Magnoliopsida and 13 species to three families of Liliopsida. The large minor fruit yielding families are Euphorbiaceae (20 spp.), Myrtaceae (18 spp.), Moraceae (15 spp.), Arecaceae (11 spp.), Sapindaceae (11 spp.), Anacardiaceae (10 spp.), Annonacae (10 spp.), Rutaceae (8 spp.), Verbenaceae (8 spp.) and Vitaceae (8 spp.). Three species are aquatic in nature and about 50 species are herbs, including 31 species of climbers or lianas, and 49 are shrubs and the remaining 156 species are trees. About 48 species are cultivated for fruits and the 35 species are both cultivated and wild. The remaining species are exclusively wild. A total of 53 exotic species are included in the cultivation. In most of the species, pericarp with mesocarp or the whole part of fruit is edible. In few cases either seed or kernel is edible, or in others the non-carpel part of flower. Summer is found as the most and winter as the least suitable fruit yielding seasons in a year.


Introduction
Fruits are eaten raw and their nutritive value lies in the presence of good amount of organic acids, carotenoids, vitamins and minerals. Fruits are an integral part of food needed to meet the mineral requirements of human body and to strengthen body defense mechanisms against various biotic and abiotic stresses and for proper health per capita requirement of fruits is 115 g. On an average, fruits have been contributing to about 4% to human nutrition (APCAEM, 2007). Utmost rural houses possess a home garden with fruit and timber plants that act as a source of income for many families and became the safety net during in hardship and natural disaster. The planting intensity has increased at least four folds in 65% of households during the last few years (Rahman and Rahman, 2014). Botanically fruit is the matured or ripe ovary. Sometimes thalamus, calyx and epicalyx, inflorescence or seeds are also developed as the major part of a fruit. Out of about 2,50,000 species in Magnoliophyta, about 30,000 species have been identified as edible fruit yielding, of which about 7,000 species have found cultivated in the World (Wilson, 1992). Minor fruits are those that are consumable to the human beings but are relatively less palatable than other mainstream fruits, which have lesser demand in the market and are grown to a limited extent only (Srivastava et al., 2017). Many of the minor or under-utilized fruits are important in social, economic, biodiversity and conservation aspects on a regional and local basis. They also provide the source of nutrition of wild animals and birds.
Many floristic works in this region mentioned about the edible fruits of Bangladesh (Humphrey et al., 1921;Heinig, 1925;Siddiqui et al., 2007and Ahmed et al., 2008-2009 and its surrounding areas (Grierson andLong, 1983-1991;Guha-Bakshi, 1984;Naskar, 1993, andNoltie, 1994). *Corresponding author. Email: bokhtear@cu.ac.bd The first comprehensive record about the edible fruits of Bangladesh was published by Khan (1974), who reported 43 species of fruits that are cultivated. Das (1982) recorded 60 species of fruits which are growing only in wild state. Later on, Rashid et al. (1987) recorded 40 cultivated fruits of Bangladesh. Subsequently Begum (2004) reported 55 species, which are only in cultivation. Finally, Roy (2007) made an extensive record of fruits, which are both cultivated and wild, numbering a total of 120 species. Rahim et al. (2011) reported 67 minor fruit yielding plants of Bangladesh that are growing in the Germplasm Centre at Bangladesh Agriculture University. The minor fruits contributed about 8.38% production of the total fruit yield of Bangladesh (BBS, 2011).
There are 250 edible fruits in the Philippines (Hill, 1951). In Malaysia, there are about 500 species of fruit plants of which 100 species are cultivated (Zakri and Mohammad, 1997). On the other hand, Joshi (1998) reported 162 species and Suresh et al. (2014) reported only 21 species of minor fruit yielding plants from India.
New scope and possibility about utilization of wild fruits is increasing. At least 30 species are already known in Bangladesh for their therapeutic values apart from their nutrition values (Rahman and Rahman, 2014). Some are antidiabetic and antioxidant. Quite a few of these have excellent flavors and attractive colour. Many natural food colours, mostly anthocyanins, are now demanding. Furthermore, many minor fruits may be valuable for food processing like jam, jelly, sauce, pickles, juice and food additives.
A preliminary botanical survey has been done by us and the study indicated that many more species are yet to be recorded or compiled for full listing of the minor fruit yielding plant resource of Bangladesh. Therefore, this study aims at providing and updating available taxonomic information of the minor edible fruit yielding plants of Bangladesh.

Materials and Methods
An extensive field survey has been conducted in different localities of 14 districts of Bangladesh namely, Chittagong, Rangamati, Bandarban, Khagrachari, Kumilla, Brahmanbaria, Mymensingh, Khulna, Jeshore, Satkhira, Sylhet, Moulavibazar, Rajshahi and Bogura districts ( Fig. 1) from 2006 to 2018 following group discussion, household survey and market survey techniques. In addition, primary information on minor and wild fruit was collected from different secondary resources (scientific papers, books, internet etc.). The collected samples were identified by consulting the available relevant literatures. Furthermore, the specimens located at the herbaria CUH, BFRIH and DACB were also studied. In order to accommodate vast array of information, a small representative list of wild and minor fruits has been prepared with their up-to-date nomenclature (Pasha and Uddin 2013 and www.theplantlist.org). Information on the availability, habit condition and status of the plants was also collected.

Results and Discussion
A total of 255 minor edible fruit yielding species belonging to 149 genera under 61 families have been presented alphabetically (Table 1). 15 of these species under three families belong to the Liliopsida and the remaining species under 58 families belong to Mangnoliopsida. The Euphorbiaceae is recorded as the largest minor fruit yielding family (20 spp.), which is followed by Myrtaceae (18 spp.), Moraceae (15 spp.), Arecaceae (11 spp.), Sapindaceae (11 spp.), Anacardiaceae (11 spp.), Annonacae (10 spp.), Rutaceae (8 spp.), Verbenaceae (8 spp.) and Vitaceae (8 spp.) families. These ten large families constitute about 47% of the total species found as minor fruit yielding (Fig. 2).   Among the species recorded, a total of 50 species are herbs, including 31 species of climbers or lianas, and 49 species are shrubby in nature. The remaining 156 species are trees. About 48 species are cultivated for fruits and the 35 species are both cultivated and wild. The remaining species are exclusively wild. A total of 53 exotic species are included in the cultivation state. Only 3 species are found growing in aquatic condition.
Almost all the species produce true fruits and only five species produce false fruits. Few species are considered as nut or kernel producing tree. Only 15 species produce fruits that are completely edible and 13 species produce such fruits only the kernel or nut of which are edible. In other cases, all the structural portions except the seed(s) are edible.
Almost all the exotic species are cultivated and considered as promising fruit yielding plants. Some native wild and minor cultivated plants are also found promising fruit yielding in their taste and colour also. In this study, 44 species have been recognized as promising minor fruit yielding species because they are comparatively widely used and popular in consumption ( Table 2).
The flowering and fruiting time of the edible fruit yielding plant species was found as remarkably variable (Table 1). The fruits were more or less available throughout the year (Fig. 3). The majority of minor fruit yielding plants were found with fruiting in the months between March and September. The richest fruit yielding month was June (11.51%) and the poorest was January (5.50%). The edible fruits occur in a vast number of families in the World. Hill (1951) recognized the families Anacardiaceae, Annonaceae, Myrtaceae, Rutaceae, Sapotaceae and Sapindaceae as particularly important in yielding the fruits. This study has also found some similar important families.
In few reports some minor fruits are evaluated as promising in many aspects (Bose, 1985;Rahim et al., 2011;Frncesca et al., 2012). Many of the minor edible fruits are with little pulp and larger seed size with less palatable. However, the edibility and nutritional value and economic value of different minor edible fruits can be improved. On the other hand, most of the major fruits are available in the month of May to July, but minor fruits are available throughout the year. The minor fruits can play a great role in improving the social and economic status of the local people. They also can significantly contribute in the conservation of biodiversity. Minor fruit production may support the livelihood of the producers and side by side can increase the demand of the consumers. Many edible minor fruits can contribute as the remarkably promising fruit recourses in multifarious way if proper research is conducted for their exploration, selection, improvement and large-scale cultivation.