Health Benefits of Three Wild Leafy Vegetable in “Lalapan” as Sundanese Traditional and Ethnic Foods

Abstract

Various ethnics of the world have a long history on using their surrounding as the source of foods. Foods which are act as product of traditional ethnic knowledge known as traditional and ethnic foods (TEF). Vegetables are one of the main ingredients of TEF. As sources of many combination of phytonutrients, vegetables offer various health benefits. As a country with long history of agricultural practice, Indonesia also has abundant knowledge of how Indonesian ethnics process and consume vegetables.Vegetables, in Sundanese tradition, usually consumed as “lalap” or “lalapan”. Some lalapan are cultivated vegetables and some others are come from wild sources. This article discuss the health benefits of wild source lalapan, which can be found in natural habitat.

The diversity and traditional knowledge of wild edible vegetables in Aceh, Indonesia

“…A total of 86 wild species belonging to 35 families and 67 genera were documented as being consumed as vegetables by local people in the study area, which is higher than the 55 wild vegetables reported from North West Pakistan (Abbas et al 2020), 50 species in Morocco. (Powell et al 2014), and 10 species were reported from West Java, Indonesia (Kodir et al 2022). However, this is less when compared to 253 wild edible vegetables reported in Sicily (Italy) (Geraci et al 2018) and 158 species in Lebanon (Baydoun 2023).…”

Gastronomic ethnobotany of traditional vegetables among the Sundanese in rural West Java, Indonesia

“…Amrinanto et al (2019) also mention that Sundanese people's habit of consuming Lalab benefits health and improves skin quality. Meanwhile, according to Kodir and Moektiwardoyo (2022), Sundanese Lalab has great health benefits. Generally, the oxidative properties of O. javanica, P. melastomoides, and C. crepidoides have a good potential for combating non-communicable and chronic diseases.…”

“…To sum up, based on the tradition of Sundanese people usually consume various Lalab, fresh Lalab, boiled and made special meals, it can prove better for both health conditions and disease prevention (Amrinanto et al 2019;Kodir and Moektiwardoyo 2022). Traditionally, the Sundanese rural people are similar to other rural people in Asia, including Lesser Himalaya Pakistan, in that they commonly utilize and consume various vegetables to cure various ailments, but this traditional knowledge has severely eroded due to traditional change in the lifestyle of local inhabitants (Abbasi et al 2013).…”

“…The tradition of consuming various types of vegetables (Lalab) in the Sundanese is very good for health and food sovereignty. That is because several types of vegetable plants contain rich nutrients, such as vitamins, and several types of vegetable plants also have important functions for human health (Amalia and Marta 2018;Hendariningrum 2018;Amrinanto et al 2019;Iskandar et al 2020;Hernawati et al 2022;Kodir and Moektiwardoyo 2022). In addition, the availability of various types of vegetable plants in various agroecosystems, such as homegarden, which has multiple ecological and socio-cultural functions (Galhena et al 2013;Mulyanto et al 2018;Suwartapradja et al 2023); can act as food sovereignty and food security of the rural area (Kaswanto and Nakagoshi 2014;Gbedomon et al 2017;Amalia and Marta 2018;Sharma et al al.…”