Coffea charrieriana

This plant is endemic to West Cameroon in the Bakossi Forest Reserve. It grows in a habitat of wet rainforest on rocky slopes of an altitude of 160 m and a mean elevation range of 300 m. It is highly threatened by deforestation for logging and palm oil production in its vulnerable lowland forest habitat.

Biochemical analysis of the seeds reveals that they are caffeine-free, this caffeine-free biochemical characteristic is generally found in Madagascan Coffea species. It is the second caffeine-free species, along with C. pseudozanguebariae which grows in a coastal dry forest near the Indian Ocean. It is suggested that the absence of caffeine in the Coffea species is due to spliceosome deficiency. Though the plants contain the necessary genes to produce caffeine, due to a malfunction in the protein synthesis pathway as a result of incorrect splicing patterns, caffeine is not produced. Caffeine absence is caused by a monogenic inheritance pattern, with the involvement of one gene and two alleles; the plant containing the recessive allele leads to no caffeine content. On the other hand, it is likely that caffeine production level is controlled by polygenic inheritance and the amount of caffeine produced is a genetic factor. Through further analysis, it was found that instead of accumulation of caffeine, the deficient caffeine synthase gene responsible for caffeine production had instead produced a substance called theobromine in its place. This discovery by scientists led to further understanding about the genetics of caffeine in Coffea plants, and the ability to hybridize coffee plants with caffeine-free plants to produce a decaf line of seeds with lower caffeine concentrations. …

Coffea charrieriana grows in wet places with plenty of sunshine. During dry periods, the species undergoes floral bud morphogenesis, but the flowering buds do not emerge until the next rainfall event. After rain, a flowering event is seen in seven days. The time it takes for flowering of all Coffea species ranges from 5–13 days, making correct timing of hybridization difficult. Similar to other Coffea species, the fleshy fruit of C. charrieriana contains edible beans. These can be prepared by drying, roasting or grinding, generally to make coffee. As a naturally occurring caffeine-free coffee, it provides an alternative over artificially decaffeinated coffee. With increasing demand for decaffeinated coffee, methods such as plant hybridization between coffee-free species, biotechnology interference of genetics and chemical extraction have been used to artificially decrease caffeine content. Generally, the presence of caffeine acts on the tastebuds, giving caffeinated products a distinct flavour, so as a caffeine-free species, C. charrieriana may not be preferable to coffee drinkers who prefer the taste provided by caffeine. C. charrieriana can be used in plant hybridization as the theobromine can be transferable between breeds, allowing caffeine concentration to be altered when crossed with a species containing caffeine. Seeds from C. …

Coffea charrieriana was discovered in 2008 and the findings were published in a paper named "A new caffeine-free coffee from Cameroon" to the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. The plant was named by authors of the paper, Piet Stoffelen and Francois Anthony, in honour of Professor André Charrier who had made significant efforts towards the coffee industry. His work included leading the coffee breeding research and collection at Institute Research for Development (IRD) for the last 30 years of the 20th century. He also held a position at the French Office of Genetic Resources (BRG) from 1988 to 1993. He is currently working as the director of research at National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), focusing on plant genetics and breeding. As a result of collaboration between the Institute of Research for Development (IRD), Biodiversity International, Paris Museum of Natural History and the French Agricultural Research Centre from 1966 to 1987, coffee plants from Madagascar, Comoros, Mascarene Islands, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Central Africa, Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania were collected. The cuttings from C. charrieriana were first collected in 1985 from Bakossi Forest Reserve in Cameroon in Central Africa along with 70 other Coffea species, many of which were already taxonomically identified. Though C. …