Total Soluble Solid Content and Nutritional Values of Sotol (Dasylirion leiophyllum) in the Chihuahuan Desert as Affected by Rainy Season and Topography

Abstract

Sotol (Dasylirion leiophyllum) grows in the Chihuahan Desert in the north of Mexico and south of the United States. The stem of this species is used to produce a liquor widely known as sotol. A field sampling and a laboratory analysis were carried out to determine the influence of the rainy season, altitude, topography, and aspect over the soluble solid content (°Brix) and bromatological variables of mature plants of sotol in Chihuahua, Mexico. Analyses of variance and Tukey tests were performed. The rainy season and altitude showed significant statistical influence (p ≤ 0.05) on the total soluble solids content; meanwhile, only altitude showed a significant effect on the bromatological variables (p ≤ 0.05). According to the results of the Tukey tests (p < 0.05), sotol plants have the highest concentrations of soluble solid contents before the rainy season (25 °Brix) and at sites with altitudes lower than 1300 m (25.95 °Brix). In addition, the means of raw protein and carbohydrates content were the highest in plants living at altitudes lower than 1500 m, at 1.93% and 31.74%, respectively. Meanwhile, topography, aspect, and the interactions of the evaluated factors did not show significant influence (p ≤ 0.05) over the total soluble solid content, nor over the bromatological variables studied.