Cassava Root of 179 Cultivars Grown in Indonesia

Analysis of cyanogenic potential, linamarin, acetone cyanohydrin and free HCN/CN−of 179 cultivars of cassava root grown in Oxisol Soil at Muara Experimentation, West Java, Indonesia, was conducted using picrate paper kits introduced by Bradbury et al. (1999). Two plants of each clone were harvested. Two roots were taken from each plant, peeled and cut according to protocol A of the picrate paper kits. Although the average content of cyanogenic potential of 179 cassava cultivars is 82 ppm, only 6.8% cyanogenic potentials was in the form of HCN/CN−(5.6 ppm), 23% as acetone cyanohydrin (19.9 ppm), and most of them (70%) as linamarin (57.1 ppm). The cyanogenic potential content clustered into very high levels (234–138 ppm) found in 10% of 179 cultivars, high (134–84 ppm) in 15% cultivars, medium (81–55 ppm) in 17% cultivars, low (54–36 ppm) in 19% cultivars, and very low (35–9 ppm) in 40% cultivars. The linamarin, acetone cyanohydrin and HCN/CN−were also clustered into 5 levels. The range, member of each cluster and name of the clone are given in the text. It was also found that no correlation existed between the cyanogen contents and total amount and weight of roots per plant.

Research Institute for Food Crops Biotechnology