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Pistachio (Pistacia vera L.)

1989; Springer Nature; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/978-3-642-61535-1_6

2512-3696

M. Barghchi, P. G. Alderson,

Plant biochemistry and biosynthesis

Pistacia belongs to the Anacardiaceae family, which includes plants such as cashew nut, mango, sumach and poison ivy. Pistacia vera L. (2n = 32) is the only species in this genus which produces edible nuts large enough to be commercially acceptable (Figs. 1–3). Other species and sub-species, producing smaller nuts, which are mainly used as rootstocks or for oil, agro-forestry, timber production and carpentry include: P. atlantica, P. cabulica, P. chinensis, P. falcata, P. integerrima, P. kinjuk, P. kurdica. P. lentiscus, P. mutica, P. palaestina, P. terebinthus (Whitehouse 1957; Joley 1969; Rechinger 1969). Pistachio nuts are relatively low in sugar (approx. 10%) and high in protein (20%) and oil (50%) contents. The oil is 90% unsaturated fatty acids, 70% of which is oleic acid and 20% the more desirable linoleic acid (Kamangar et al. 1975; Kamangar and Farsam 1977; Hosseini- Shokraii 1977; Diamantoglou and Meletion-Christon 1979).