The Secret of Health in the Daily Cuisine: the Typical Health Vegetables in the Local Markets in Central Myanmar

Abstract

BackgroundCentral Myanmar locate in the Indo-Burma Biodiversity hotspot, and Barma people is the main ethnic group which had settled there over thousands years ago. Nevertheless, as the major Myanmar ethnic group, Bamar people were ignored in Ethnobotanical studies. Market surveys are considered a good strategy for the preliminary screening of potential Ethnopharmacological plant resources. In the present study, we focused on the local health knowledge of vegetables of Bamar people in local markets.Materia and methods:In the present study, we surveyed the local markets, then recorded, collected, identified and catalogued the typical vegetables, and document the knowledge of health benefits of the collected vegetables, then analyze the information of vegetables and local knowledge. The observation and interviews were used in field study, and the Ethnobotanical Indexes were used to analyze the local knowledge. We compare the local knowledge we collected with traditional medicine literatures.Results10 Markets and fairs were selected in Mandalay Region, Magway Region, Yangon Region and Nay Pyi Taw Union Territory, and in a total of 277 vegetable stalls or shops were visited. 132 plant taxa were collected and identified. Many of the healthy vegetables were cited as functional food had health benefit by the informants (106 taxa, 80.3%) while others were just regarded as “good for health” (26 taxa, 19.7%). Over half of the taxa were recorded as traditional medicinal plants with health functions in previous studies. The main health function of the vegetables was treating digestion problems.ConclusionThe diversity and use of the health vegetables in central Myanmar were very rich. Some previous Phytochemical and Pharmacological studies on these plants showed that their extracts had effective activities or compounds related to health functions. It should be noted the food safety of the vegetables in future researches.Yu Zhang and Jian-Wen Li contribute equally to the article.