The Psidium Research and Development Foundation

From left to right P.lucidum, P.lucidum, P. cattleianum, P. cattleianum

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The Psidium Research & Development Foundation (PRDF) is a non-profit organization with a goal to stimulate research and development in the field of Psidium (Guavas) species especially the invasive Psidium cattleianum, P. littorale and P. lucidum that are currently considered to one of the biggest single invasive species treats to the native subtropical rainforests of Hawaii and the Hawaiian National Forests.

These three tree plants within the Guava family are native to Brazil, they were introduced to Hawaii by the british around 1825 and are often referred to as Waiawi (pronouced Why-we) in Hawaiian or as Strawberry Guavas in English, SG's are fairly distant relatives to Common Guava (P. guajava). Eventhough the fruits are edible and the wood and leaves are used by people in Hawaii, the SG's are currently considered to have almost no commercial value. There are  an estimate made in 2010 declaring that the cost of clearing SG's from Hawaii's National Forrest to about 367 million US Dollar.

 Before the existance of PRDF there were some research from 1980 into the invasive SG's with focused on bio-control, land-clearing, seed dispersion by pigs and other animals, genetics and landscape coverage of the SG based on GIS estimations. Hereof 1.2 million US dollars were spent on research of the Brazilian clonal gall forming bug Tectococcus ovatus that are a natural predator on SG's in Brazil, I started my research in 2006 working on the Genetics of SG, and trough my research I found there are a lot more to learn about these invaisive trees, and that they have a lot of medical and practical potential that have yet to be tapped into.

The current goals of Psidium Research and Development Foundation is to look into a broader field of research and development of SG's and creating awareness of the SG's as invasive trees that are damaging and ruining the fragile natural and unique forests of Hawaii.

As part of this work we have developed Waiawi Naturals, a charity brand that uses SG, as one of it's ingredients, Waiawi Naturals are currently producing bath salts and soaps. For more information about the Waiawi Naturals Brand, see www.waiawi-naturals.blogspot.com