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

Foods

Teresa Egea¹  Concepción Obón¹  Diego Rivera²  Stephanie Campeggi³  Ada Baldi³  Piero Bruschi³  Anna Lenzi³ 

[1] Departamento Biología Aplicada, Escuela Politécnica Superior, Universidad Miguel Hernández, Ctra. Beniel Km 3.2, 03312 Orihuela, Spain;Departamento Biología Vegetal, Campus de Espinardo, Universidad de Murcia, 30100 Murcia, Spain;Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Agrarie, Alimentari Ambientali e Forestali, Università degli Studi di Firenze, 50144 Firenze, Italy;

关键词: ethnobotany;    traditional gastronomy;    vegetables;    fruits;    nutrients;    food safety;   

DOI  :  10.3390/foods11030300

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

This paper provides an overview of wild food plants traditionally used in the gastronomy of Tuscany, an Italian region with high biological diversity and whose cultural heritage is well known. Forty-nine bibliographic sources, including five unpublished studies, were reviewed. A list of species with ecological characteristics, plant parts used, use category (food, liquor, or seasoning), methods of preparation (raw or cooked), and recipes is presented. The use of 357 taxa (3711 use reports, URs), was recorded, belonging to 215 genera and 72 botanical families. Over the total taxa, 12 are new for Tuscany, 52 seem not to be present in other Italian regions, and 54 were not detected in the consulted European ethnobotanical literature. Of these taxa, 324 (3117 URs) were used as food, while 49 (178 URs) and 81 (416 URs) were used for liquor and seasoning, respectively. Of the 17 different food recipes, cooked vegetables constituted the largest group, followed by salads, omelets, snacks, and fillings. The chemical composition of the recorded food plants and the possible safety risks associated to their consumption, as well as their traditional medicinal use, are also shown. This review highlights the richness of ethnobotanical knowledge in Tuscany. Such biocultural heritage can be a “source of inspiration” for agriculture. As a reservoir of potential new crops, wild edible flora may contribute to the development of emerging horticultural sectors such as vertical farming and microgreens production. Moreover, the nutrient content and healthy properties of many wild food plants reported in this study has the ability to meet consumer demand for functional foods.

【 授权许可】

Unknown