MANEJO DE CORTE DAS FOLHAS DE Copernicia prunifera (Miller) H. E. Moore NO PIAUÍ

Abstract

The carnauba (Copernicia prunifera (Miller) HE Moore) is a native fruit species to the north- east of Brazil and its exploration is based mainly on the extract of wax powder from leaves. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of different management strategies of cutting leaves, developmental stages and leaf age on leaf traits and physical-chemical attributes of carnauba wax in a natural population of carnauba palm located at the Cajazeira Farm, municipality of União, Piauí state, Brazil. The selected plants were identi- fied and classified in two developmental stages: capoteiro and adult palm. The management strategies cutting leaves were: one cut in August; two cuts, the first in August and the second in December; and one cut in De- cember. The leaves were separated according to age into new and old leaf. It was performed the individual analysis of variance of leaf number (LN), wax powder production (WP), ratio WP/LN, moisture content, impu- rities content and wax yield for each management systems as well as the analysis of the different managements. Leaf age presented as the attribute of greater relevance in the commercial use of carnauba. The best manage- ment strategy for cutting leaves of carnauba consists of a single annual cut in December.