Aim of study: Within the scope of the European project RUBIA (ICA3-2002-10023), research has been performed on the traditional use and handling of plant species in several Mediterranean countries, Albania, Algeria, Cyprus, Egypt, Italy, Morocco, and Spain. This paper synthesises the chief results related to the medicinal utilization of those plants. Material and methods:The information has been gathered by means of semi-structured interviews (1256) and techniques of participant observation with 803 informants. In each of the participating countries the study areas were selected by means of uniform criteria defined at the beginning of the study. Results and conclusions:A total of 985 species have been catalogued, of which 406 have medicinal use. This work constitutes the first comparative study performed with ethnobotanical data gathered by a coordinated methodology in the Mediterranean area. An exhaustive list is provided for the species catalogued, indicating the regions where each plant was mentioned. Ethnopharmacological relevance: This information underlines the ethnobotanical richness of the region and the need to broaden this study to other areas of the Mediterranean. Furthermore, this constitutes a base for future phytochemical and pharmacological studies which could lead to new therapeutic products.

IntroductionIn several countries and regions of Europe ethnobotanical studies and reviews give us a picture of traditionally used wild food plants (e.g. Poland [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8], Spain [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26], Portugal [26,27], Italy [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37], Greece [38,39], France [40], , the whole Mediterranean area [42][43][44], Austria [45][46][47], Slovakia [48] and the Nordic countries [49,50]).Plant use patterns are usually not static. In many cases ethnobotanical studies reveal either a dramatic or gradual loss of traditional knowledge and practices (e.g. [3,50,51]). The changes in patterns of wild plant use differ by region and are associated with lifestyle changes, urbanization, large-scale farming, lesser contact with nature and many other reasons. Moreover, times of famine seem to be in the distant past for industrially developed countries. Food made of cultivated plants and bought from the supermarket appears on the table with relatively little effort, while collecting wild species is more time consuming and season-dependent. In spite of that, the importance of wild food plants for food security and in shaping alternative models of consumption is emphasized [52]. Wild food plants cannot be considered "famine food" only, as many of them were and still are used on several other occasions as well (cf. [53]). Moreover, in Europe there are new phenomena associated with plant use appearing in modern societies. Some of them have to do with migration and new ethnic minorities appearing in cities and bringing new traditions with them. Other phenomena appear due to new trends in nutrition and self-medication facilitated by the instantaneous spread of information via the Internet. On top of that not all the traditions are gone, in some areas for a variety of reasons old traditions are cultivated while in others, they are lost.In this review we would like to give an overall picture of what is happening to the traditional use of wild food plants in different parts of Europe at the dawn of the 21st century. What are wild food plants?The term "wild" refers to those plants that grow without being cultivated. It mostly includes native species growing in their natural habitat, but sometimes managed, as well as introduced species that have been naturalized [15].Apart from that, a large number of other species are perceived as "wild" and labelled in this way, sometimes for marketing purposes (positive term) or as a negative term (as AbstractThe aim of this review is to present an overview of changes in the contemporary use of wild food plants in Europe, mainly using the examples of our home countries: Poland, Italy, Spain, Estonia and Sweden. We set the scene referring to the nutrition of 19th century peasants, involving many famine and emergency foods. Later we discuss such issues as children's wild snacks, the association between the decline of plant knowledge and the disappearance of plant use, the effects of over-exploitation, the decrease of t...

Humans the world over have depended on wild-growing plants in their diets for hundreds of thousands of years, and many people continue to rely on these species to meet at least part of their daily nutritional needs. Wild harvested plant foods include: roots and other underground parts; shoots and leafy greens; berries and other fleshy fruits; grains, nuts and seeds; and mushrooms, lichens, algae and other species. Use of any of these species requires special cultural knowledge regarding harvesting, preparation, cooking and other forms of processing. Many were, and are, prepared and served in mixtures or combinations. In most cases, too, the species are managed, tended or manipulated in some way to increase their productivity and availability. Many of themost widely used species are categorized as weeds-species that grow and reproduce readily in disturbed or cleared land, and are common around human settlements and agricultural areas. This paper presents case examples of edible wild plant use and the roles of these species in agroecosystems from different parts of the world and discusses similarities and differences in use across different cultures and segments of society.

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