ARTICLE IN PRESS

NUTRITIONAL COMPOSITION OF ANTHESISING MALE INFLORESCENCE OF OIL PALM Elaeis guineensis ESSENTIAL FOR DEVELOPMENT OF Elaeidobius kamerunicus Faust: FIRST REPORT

MUHAMAD HAZIQ HADIF ZULKEFLI1; SYARI JAMIAN1,2*; SITI IZERA ISMAIL1,2; NUR AZURA ADAM1; JOHARI JALINAS3 and MOHAMED MAZMIRA MOHD MASRI4

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21894/jopr.2023.0027
Received: 31 October 2022   Accepted: 19 April 2023   Published Online: 22 June 2023
ABSTRACT

Rearing of Elaeidobius kamerunicus, the pollinator of oil palm, requires the anthesising male inflorescence of oil palm as the breeding and feeding ground. Various studies have reported on the weevils utilising the male inflorescence as feed to sustain its development. However, for routine rearing, the use of male inflorescence is inconvenient as it has to be continuously collected from the field. Thus, this pioneering study was conducted to determine the nutritional composition of anthesising male inflorescence of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) which is essential for E. kamerunicus life development. First, proximate analysis was performed to determine the nutritional composition of anthesising male inflorescence. Next, the nutritional profiles of amino acids, fatty acids and carbohydrates were determined and analysed separately. The average proximate analysis of anthesising male inflorescence of oil palm recorded a high moisture content of 75%, followed by carbohydrate, protein, fat and ash. The amino acid profile revealed the presence of 18 amino acids with lysine having the highest content. The spikelet also recorded a total of 32 fatty acids with oleic acid recording the highest value. Nevertheless, the carbohydrate profile was not determined as its presence was in trace amount only. This study provided new knowledge and reference standard on the nutritional composition of anthesising male inflorescence of oil palm that is essential for E. kamerunicus.

KEYWORDS:


1 Department of Plant Protection,
Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia,
43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

2 Laboratory of Climate-Smart Food Crop Production,
Institute of Tropical Agriculture and Food Security (ITAFoS),
Universiti Putra Malaysia,
43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

3 Laboratory of Applied Entomology,
Centre for Insect Systematics,
Department of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology,
Faculty of Science and Technology,
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia,
43600, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

4 Malaysian Palm Oil Board,
6 Persiaran Institusi, Bandar Baru Bangi,
43000 Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia.

* Corresponding author e-mail: syari@upm.edu.my