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Preliminary characterization of morphological characteristics of Momordica cochinchinensis
landraces collected from different regions of Malaysia

*
1
1 Al- Salahi Muaadh, Ramisah Mohd Shah

1 Faculty of Fisheries and Food Science, University Malaysia Terengganu,
21030 Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia

* Corresponding author: ramisah@umt.edu.my

Abstract:
Momordica cochinchinensis (Lour.) Spreng or gac fruit (2n = 28) is a member of the Cucurbitaceae
family that was previously common throughout Southeast Asia. It has both nutritional and medicinal
value, as it's utilised as a health food and a drug in folk medicine. There is a paucity of information
regarding the morphological characterization of M. cochinchinensis that grows in various regions in
Peninsular Malaysia. This complicates collecting for germplasm and selecting high-yield varieties.
Thus, this study was carried out to characterised morphological variation of M. cochinchinensis
landraces collected from four main regions of Peninsular Malaysia. The plants were collected and
cultivated in the experimental plot at UMT Bukit Kor campus. The morphological traits of M.
cochinchinensis were evaluated using quantitative measurement. Evaluation was investigated during
the vegetative and reproductive phase. The parameters of the leaf that were studied includes shape and
number of lobes. Flowers and fruits are the reproductive parameters that were measured. In general, our
results indicated that there was variation in the morphological traits of M. cochinchinensis landraces in
this study. The leaves were three-lobed, except for Kubang Kerian, which were five-lobed. Kuala Lipis
accessions had very deep-lobed leaves, while the other accessions had medium-lobed leaves. Kubang
Kerian accessions have female flowers with a male structure, whereas accessions of other regions don’t.
The fruit's shape and surface texture also varied. The high morphological variability of M.
cochinchinensis was expected to be due to the eco-geographical diversity of the regions from which
they were collected. Based on this findings, more comprehensive traits of M. cochinchinensis should
be added in order to improve the accuracy of the level of variation results. This study maybe useful for
the development and production of cultivars with desirable traits as well as for the commercial
propagation of gac fruit.

Keywords: Gac fruit, Gac leaves, Quantitative, Germplasm, Traits.