The Power of Wild Plants in Feeding Humanity: A Meta-Analytic Ethnobotanical Approach in the Catalan Linguistic Area

Abstract

Wild food plants (WFP) have always been present in our kitchen, although they have not always been given the same importance as crops. In the Catalan linguistic area (CLA), covered in this paper, WFP were of great importance as a subsistence food not only during the years of the Spanish civil war (1936–1939) and World War II (1939–1945), but also long before these periods and in the years thereafter. The CLA has been well studied at the level of traditional knowledge on plant biodiversity, and much of this information is collected in a database by the EtnoBioFiC research group. The aim of this work is to carry out a meta-analysis of the WFP dataset of the CLA (only regarding edible uses, drinks excluded) and to identify the most quoted plants, and the information associated with them. With data from 1659 informants, we recorded 10,078 use reports of 291 taxa (278 of which at specific or subspecific levels and 13 only determined at generic level) belonging to 67 families. The most reported taxa, also with highest cultural importance indexes, are Thymus vulgaris, Foeniculum vulgare subsp. piperitum, Laurus nobilis, Rubus ulmifolius and Mentha spicata. The ethnobotanicity index for food plants is 6.62% and the informant consensus factor, also for food uses, is a very high 0.97, supporting the robustness of the information. The results provided and discussed in this work concern a significant part of the edible resources in the territory considered, which is, often and mainly, underestimated and underutilised. Its consideration could be an opportunity to promote closer and more sustainable agriculture. From the state-of-the-art of this question, it is possible to propose old, in some cases forgotten foods that could be newly introduced onto the market, first, but not only, at a local level, which could be interesting for new crop development in the frame of a valorisation of territorial identity.

The Renaissance of Wild Food Plants: Insights from Tuscany (Italy)

“…These values are consistent with those of other Italian regions (range 5.4-11%) for seasonings only [48], or different areas of the Iberian Peninsula (range 5.05-29.01%) for all food and medicinal uses [49]. Recently, Gras et al [44] have reported that 6.62% of the total native flora in the Catalan linguistic area has a traditional food use. Moreover, our results provide a relevant and novel contribution to the knowledge of food plants in Tuscany and in Italy by including original data from graduation theses.…”

“…Tardìo et al [42] in their review reported the use of 419 edible species for the whole of Spain. In the northwestern region of the Iberian Peninsula, Pardo-de-Santayana et al [43] mentioned the use of 97 wild food species while Gras et al [44] reported 278 taxa (beverage excluded) for the Catalan linguistic area. In their comparative analysis on the wild food plants gathered in the Mediterranean Basin, Leonti et al [45] identified 84 species for Italy (Castelmezzano in Basilicata and Gallicianò in Reggio Calabria), 147 for Greece (mostly Crete) and 173 for Spain (Cuenca, Albacete, and Murcia provinces).…”

Essential Oil Coating: Mediterranean Culinary Plants as Grain Protectants against Larvae and Adults of Tribolium castaneum and Trogoderma granarium

“…All EO-based MEs included in the current bioprospecting study exhibit the prevailing phytochemical EO profile for the respective plant taxa. This fact enhances the replicability and upscale of the findings, since the exploited raw materials are widely available in nature [34,[45][46][47][48][49][50]95,96]. In addition, we expect our results to have bearing on the control and the integrated pest management of stored-product insect pests.…”

“…For this purpose, EO-based MEs have been implemented for first time as grain coating agents. The subjects of investigation were retrieved from the Greek biodiversity pool with a distinct focus on edible and/or culinary plants [45][46][47][48][49][50]. This way, the EO-based ME grain coating will be compatible with human consumption.…”

La web ‘Etnobotànica dels Països Catalans’: coneixement tradicional al servei de la societat

“…A més, a partir de les dades que conté, permetrà aprofundir sobre aspectes concrets de la investigació en etnobotànica que ofereixen resultats prometedors. A part de detectar buits que cal cobrir en l'inventari etnoflorístic, permetran fer diversos tipus d'estudis metanalítics que fins ara han estat rars en aquesta disciplina, no només als Països Catalans, sinó en general: Pel que fa a l'àrea aquí considerada, el domini lingüístic català, en podem esmentar algun exemple: l'anàlisi de les formes vitals de les plantes i dels territoris fisiogràfics on creixen (Gras et al, 2020b), l'estudi comparatiu de les plantes alimentàries silvestres (Gras et al, 2021a) i el paper de les famílies botàniques en l'etnobotànica mèdica (Gras et al, 2021b). Finalment, faran possible obtenir fàcilment informació sobre molt diversos tipus d'usos de plantes a institucions o empreses interessades a desenvolupar productes comercials d'origen vegetal en camps ben diversos, començant per la farmàcia i l'alimentació, però ni de bon tros aturant-s'hi.…”