Breadfruit From a Conservation, Research, Historical, and Ethnobotanical Perspective

Breadfruit (Artocarpus, Moraceae) is a storied crop long recognized for its potential to alleviate hunger in tropical regions. An important staple crop in Oceania for millennia, the trees are an important component of traditional agroforestry systems. Breadfruit’s origin and domestication is intricately linked to migration and settlement of the vast Pacific. The British (through the efforts of the notorious Captain Bligh) and the French brought breadfruit and breadnut to their Caribbean colonies in the late 1790s. It has subsequently been introduced to other tropical regions and today is grown in close to 90 countries. Although hundreds of cultivars have been selected and named in the Pacific islands, with more than 2,000 vernacular names documented, only a few cultivars are grown outside the region. Three species, A. altilis, A. camansi, and A. mariannensis, plus natural hybrids (A. altilis x A. mariannensis) make up the breadfruit complex. The Breadfruit Institute at the National Tropical Botanical Garden (Hawaii) manages the world’s largest collection of breadfruit, with more than 120 cultivars and 300 accessions from 34 Pacific islands, the Philippines, Seychelles, Indonesia, and Honduras conserved in field genebanks. Research on the NTBG collection includes assessing genetic diversity, morphological descriptors, and seasonality; and evaluation of protein and mineral content, fruit yield, and other fruit characteristics for 94 accessions. Recent developments in micropropagation make large-scale propagation and distribution of cultivars feasible. This review will highlight the history and ethnobotany of breadfruit in the Pacific in the context of conservation and evaluation of breadfruit germplasm. It will describe how the Breadfruit Institute is promoting the conservation and use of breadfruit for food and reforestation. A major focus is an initiative to distribute selected cultivars for tree planting projects to support sustainable agriculture, agroforestry, home gardens, and income generation. This initiative involves collaboration between the Breadfruit Institute, university researchers, the private sector, and non-governmental agencies and is a model for benefit sharing of revenues derived from commercialization of a traditional Oceanic crop.