Agro-morphological and chemical characterization of traditional Indonesian peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) cultivars

In order to improve the knowledge of the peanut species, thirty five cultivars from several different regions in Indonesia were collected and characterized agro-morphologically and chemically. A total of 25 descriptors, mainly defined by the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics were used to describe the flowers, leaves and fruits obtained over 5 planting seasons (October 2010-February 2013). The study indicates that different growth seasons strongly affect the quantitative peanut parameters measured. A dendrogram, produced using the Furthest Neighbor Method (Euclidean) from agro-morphological and chemical parameters, afforded a clear separation between the peanut cultivars and revealed existing synonymies such as Gorontalo B and C and homonymies such as Kinali Merah and Putih. Some cultivars, such as Baturaja B, Rancabuaya, and Sumenep, exhibited an interesting combination of the high-yield (950 kg/ha), high content of omega-3 (3.42 g/100g) and omega-9 (38.11 g/100g) fatty acids, and resistance to Ralstonia solanacearum characters. Another two relevant cultivars related to chemical composition were Binjai and Sumedang. All these traditional cultivars can be used as a potential source of genetic variation for future peanut improvement programs. This work is an important step in the conservation of genetic peanut resources in Indonesia, which show distinctive and interesting agronomic and chemical characters, such as yield components, maturing time and oil composition.