A bibliometric review of Persea americana Mill. (Lauraceae): A green gold in agroindustry

Avocado's global acceptance has grown, resulting in expanding cultivation, agricultural development, and significant marketing efforts. Publicizing avocado also targets its by-products' nutritional and functional benefits. This is the first bibliometric analysis for avocado. It aims to provide a descriptive structure to identify collaborative patterns and emerging themes in avocado research. Based on the search string used in the article title, the study retrieved 2576 documents from the Scopus database for further analysis. For comparison, we separated the data into two study periods: 1916-2011 and 2012-2021. BibliometriX and VOSviewer software were used to examine the descriptive structure and collaborative patterns, as well as to create maps based on network data. When we compared the two study periods, we identified a changing pattern in descriptive structure, collaboration and research trends. Based on the identified emergent themes of the last decade, we propose that future research focuses on the functional and medicinal properties of avocado, postharvest management and its biological control, plant cultivars and diseases, and physicochemical properties of avocado and its by-products. Further bibliographic support revealed that, in addition to the fruit pulp, non-edible parts of Persea americana (bark, leaves, peel, seeds, and stem), and oil have remarkable concentrations of bioactive compounds with potential biological activity for health benefits.