MORPHOLOGICAL AND BIOCHEMICAL ANALYSES OF Agave salmiana VARIETIES

The pulque maguey is a perennial plant that provides several environmental benefits. Although its plantation has been drastically reduced, its primary economic and cultural use is the production of fermented, low-cost beverages. In this study, morphological and chemical analyses were conducted, which contribute to the knowledge that allows for the extraction of high-value products from pulque maguey biomass. The Agave salmiana varieties studied were Ayoteco (Ayo), Púa Larga (PL), Manso (Man), Chalqueño (Chal), Blanco Cenizo (BC), and Sha’mini (Sha), as well as a “Verde” variety known as Cosmimaco (VC). The data was analyzed using the Shapiro-Wilk test (α = 0.05), followed by multiple means comparison using the Tukey procedure (α = 0.05), the Kruskal-Wallis non-parametric test, and the Dunn-Bonferroni test (α = 0.05). In order to differentiate the agave varieties by their chemical compositions, a canonical discriminant analysis (CDA) was applied. The lipid percentage (1.1–1.7 %) and the cellulose content (61–71 %) were higher than those reported for other Agave species. The BC variety contains a high concentration of cellulose and the least amount of lignin, making it a viable option for the energy industry. The CDA identified two discriminant functions that explained 95 % of the variance between the A. salmiana species in this study: ash content and lignin content. The results indicate that the amount of cellulose in pulque maguey leaves is an option to obtain products with a higher commercial value.