Encyclopedia
Please note this is a comparison between Version 1 by Pedro León-Lobos and Version 2 by Vivi Li.
Locally available WEPs edible plants; plant genetic resources; traditional knowledge(Wild Edible Native Plants) can provide consumers with a more diverse range of nutritionally high-quality compounds. They can be a source of energy, fibre and micronutrients and offer a large spectrum of phytochemicals such as phenols, tannins, flavones, terpenoids, polysaccharides, steroids, saponins and alkaloids.
- edible plants
- plant genetic resources
- traditional knowledge
1. Introduction
One of the most fundamental values of plant biodiversity for human beings is supplying the world’s food and nutrition security [1][2][1,2]. The importance of biodiversity has gradually been acquiring greater recognition in the work of international agencies such as the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (hereafter FAO) Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (http://www.fao.org/cgrfa (accessed on 12 February 2022)). The benefits derived from biodiversity are also at the heart of the Convention on Biological Diversity [3] and the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation [4]. More specifically, the role it plays in food security and nutrition is proclaimed in the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture [5] and the U.N. Sustainable Development Goal 2: Zero Hunger [6]. Biodiversity is fundamental to addressing the double challenge of shortage (hunger) and excess (obesity) of calories and nutrient intake that humanity is increasingly facing today, as the world’s population is expected to reach 10 billion by 2050 [7].
The practice of consuming wild edible plants (WEPs) is as old as human prehistory, and it still holds for some traditional communities today [8]. However, the relative importance and degree of dependency that humans have on WEPs varies significantly from one culture to another [9][10][9,10]. In many traditional cultures, WEPs complement staple foods to provide a balanced diet as part of the daily nutritional intake [11][12][13][14][15][11,12,13,14,15]. In more modern cultures such as Europe, their use is influenced by the contemporary awareness of wellbeing, health and fitness or is driven by cultural and ethical concerns [16][17][18][16,17,18]. In both cases, the practice of consumption of WEPs is linked to the cultural identity and deep connections between people, their land and associated traditional ecological knowledge about their surrounding natural environment and lifestyles [9][10][9,10].
Locally available WEPs can provide consumers with a more diverse range of nutritionally high-quality compounds [19][20][19,20]. They can be a source of energy, fibre and micronutrients and offer a large spectrum of phytochemicals such as phenols, tannins, flavones, terpenoids, polysaccharides, steroids, saponins and alkaloids [19][21][22][23][24][19,21,22,23,24]. Thus, WEPs can increase the nutrient content of poor diets [16] and produce health benefits [25][26][27][25,26,27]. This awareness has generated increasing interest in, and innovative uses of, WEPs as potentially exploitable sources of foodstuffs [14], functional foods, products engineered to fulfil special dietary needs, ethnic food and products with Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) that coexist with traditional uses [28].
Indigenous people in Chile, along with their occupation of the territory and interaction with their surrounding natural resources, have long been collecting and consuming a significant number of wild plants as a source of food. This traditional ecological knowledge has been documented since the Spanish conquest in the 16th Century [29][30][31][32][29,30,31,32]. However, ethnobotanical research has intensified only in the last century [33][34][35][36][33,34,35,36]. Villagran and Castro (2004) [36] gathered the most comprehensive information on the traditional uses of plants for indigenous communities from the Altiplano of northern Chile, while De Mösbach (1992) [35] completed something similar for the plant traditional knowledge of Mapuche communities of southern Chile. Díaz-Forestier et al. (2019) [37] recently compiled an inventory of the uses of the native flora of Chile by extracting uses cited in the literature until 2015. They reported that there are at least 228 native edible plants among the useful plants, representing 5% of the total flora of Chile.
2. Patterns of Traditional and Modern Uses of Wild Edible Native Plants of Chile
Asteraceae, Cactaceae, Fabaceae, Solanaceae and Poaceae are among the prominent families used for human food in Chile. This finding is generally consistent with a recent global study [7] and with other countries such as India [38][52] and Ecuador [39][50]. In India, Fabacaeae, Asteraceae and Poaceae are the families with most WEPs, followed by Malvaceae and Rosaceae [38][52]. Fabaceae and Solanaceae are also among the families with more representative species within the Ecuadorian flora [39][50]. In the Mediterranean area, Asteraceae, Lamiaceae, and Apiaceae are among the six most representative families [40][53].
It is important to highlight that Chenopodiaceae and Solanaceae are among the families containing the most main crops, such as Chenopodium quinoa (quinoa) and Solanum tuberosum. (potato), respectively; while Rosaceae and Grossulariaceae contain most CWRs; e.g., Fragaria (strawberry), Rubus (raspberry) and Ribes (currant). Some WEPs can also be highlighted because of their taxonomic uniqueness. For example, Lardizabala biternata Ruiz and Pav. (Lardizabalaceae) and Gomortega keule (Molina) Baill. (Gomortegaceae) belong to monotypic and endemic families of Chile [41][54]. Some species of Araucariaceae, Proteaceae and Elaeocarpaceae are WEPs that are culturally important for the local Mapuche communities, such as Araucaria araucana (Molina) K. Koch, Gevuina avellana and Aristotelia chilensis [35], respectively.
Asterids, which include Ericales, Lamiids and Campanulids, was the richest clade, containing some of the most important families (i.e., Apiaceae (e.g., wild parsley, Osmorhiza berteroi DC.), Asteraceae (Tupinambo, Helianthus tuberosus L.), Ericaceae (Chaura, Gaultheria mucronata (L.f.) Hook. and Arn.), Lamiaceae (tree mint, Clinopodium chilense (Benth.) Govaerts) and Solanaceae (Pichi Romero, Fabiana imbricata Ruiz and Pav.)). The second largest clade was Rosids, with families such as Fabaceae (Chilean mesquite, Prosopis chilensis (Molina) Stuntz) and Rosaceae (wild strawberry, Fragaria chiloensis (L.) Mill.). Smaller clades, but still remarkable, were the monocots, including Poaceae (pasto del perro, Bromus catharticus Vahl)) and Bromeliaceae (chupón, Greigia sphacelata (Ruiz and Pav.) Regel); and Saxifragales with Cactaceae (quisco, Leucostele chiloensis (Colla) Schlumpb.)). Ulian et al. (2020) [7] highlighted the relevance of some of these clades in terms of species richness (e.g., orders Asterales, Fabales, Rosales, Poales). However, some families such as Cactaceae (with 21 WEPs out of 104 total species) and Grossulariaceae (with 8 WEPs out of 9 total species) have increased significance in the Chilean flora.
Fruits, roots and vegetables (including leaves and stems) are the plant parts most consumed, which is similar to the Ecuadorian flora [39][50], the South American region of Gran Chaco [42][55], Ethiopia [15], Nepal [43][56] and Canada [44][57]. However, this is in contrast with results from ethnobotanical studies carried out in several European countries, such as the Czech Republic [45][58], Bulgaria [46][59], the Mediterranean region [12][40][47][12,53,60], and further afield in China [48][61] and India [38][52], where leaves and whole plants (green vegetables) are the parts that are the most frequently consumed in term of number of species in their respective floras.
Most of the Chilean native WEPs have only one edible part recorded. This finding is consistent with previous reports for the floras of Great Britain, New Guinea, Panama and other countries worldwide [49][62]. Patterns and level of overlap between the main modes of consumption were consistent with those reported for the wild edible vegetables and fruits of Spain [50][63].
Most of the Chilean WEPs were reported in early ethnobotanical studies and chronicles from naturalists. ResWearchers only found two species with modern industrial uses: Quillaja saponaria Molina (Quillajaceae; quillay), whose saponins are used as natural emulsifiers, foaming agents in beverages and production of low-cholesterol foods [51][64] and Tara spinosa (Molina) Britton and Rose (Fabaceae; Tara) whose gum is extracted from seeds and used in commercial galactomannans in the development of edible film, or as a stabiliser, thickener, coating, emulsifier, adsorbent or gelling agent [52][65]. There are also new forms of consumption reported for some traditional edible species, such as for the Chilean bellflower, copihüe (Lapageria rosea Ruiz and Pav.), whose fruits had been traditionally consumed by the Mapuche people [35], while today its flowers are consumed in salads, chutneys and dressings.
The traditional use of WEPs has vastly decreased due to the erosion of traditional knowledge [9][17][18][53][9,17,18,66] driven by globalisation, modernisation (i.e., changes in food systems) and market integration [54][67]. Thus, the large proportion of native Chilean WEPs reported in ethnobotanical studies does not necessarily mean that these species are currently consumed [55][68]. Unfortunately, ouresearchers' analysis did not allow researchersus to explore which species are still traditionally used today. However, researcherswe believe that the use of several species has been either forgotten or is very rare, such as Madia sativa Molina and M. chilensis (Nutt.) Reiche, whose seeds were used as a source of oil by the Mapuche communities [35]. Similarly, the seeds of Bromus berteroanus Colla, B. catharticus Vahl and B. mango E. Desv were used to make flour and bread before the arrival of the Spanish colonisers [35]. Notably, the old cereal B. mango E. Desv. is already extinct in the wild [56][45], according to IUCN criteria and categories.
Many edible plants are also used for medicinal purposes according to several studies [25][57][58][59][25,69,70,71]. In ouresearchers' search, 56% of the total native WEPs are also reported as medicinal, however this is comparatively lower than that reported in Ulian et al., 2020 [7] at the global scale (70%).
This survey found a relatively high percentage (Table 14) of Chilean native WEPs traditionally consumed as vegetables and roots, seeds and even flowers, however these species are scarcely valued and studied. Native edible vegetables and flowers can be a potential area for development and a source of economic income for local communities, by promoting local, ethnic and boutique cuisine [17] and as part of gastronomic tourism, similar to some European countries [12][47][12,60]. The domestication and cultivation of wild edible vegetables and flowers could support the sustainable use and conservation of native Chilean WEPs [60][72].
Table 1. Number and percentages of Chilean native WEPs according to the part used and form of consumption. Species can have more than one form of consumption and part consumed.
| Part Uses: | Infructescences (118) | Roots (71) | Leaves (66) | Seeds (30) | Stems (23) | Inflorescences (10) | Unspecified Parts (50) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consumption: | n | % | n | % | n | % | n | % | n | % | n | % | n | % |
| Raw | 95 | 80.5 | 27 | 38.0 | 17 | 25.8 | 6 | 20.0 | 4 | 17.4 | 3 | 30.0 | 1 | 2.0 |
| Beverages | 36 | 30.5 | 3 | 4.2 | 26 | 39.4 | 8 | 26.7 | 1 | 4.3 | 1 | 10.0 | 26 | 52.0 |
| Savoury preparations | 6 | 5.1 | 39 | 54.9 | 33 | 50.0 | 11 | 36.7 | 15 | 65.2 | 3 | 30.0 | 4 | 8.0 |
| Sweet dishes | 40 | 33.9 | 1 | 1.5 | 4 | 13.3 | 2 | 20.0 | ||||||
| Seasoning | 2 | 1.7 | 2 | 2.8 | 13 | 19.7 | 1 | 3.3 | 12 | 24.0 | ||||
| Cereal/starch-based preparations | 8 | 6.8 | 7 | 9.9 | 2 | 6.7 | 3 | 6.0 | ||||||
| Oil | 6 | 20.0 | ||||||||||||
| Other preparations | 5 | 4.2 | 1 | 1.4 | 1 | 1.5 | 3 | 10.0 | 1 | 4.3 | ||||
| Unspecified | 6 | 5.1 | 27 | 38.0 | 9 | 13.6 | 3 | 10.0 | 1 | 4.3 | 4 | 40.0 | 12 | 24.0 |
There is also high potential to produce healthy food products based on native WEPs of Chile. The real importance of these foods can be assessed in terms of their specific compounds, their quality, their quantity, and their nutritional, health and culinary properties [23]. Likewise, the toxicity, allergenic and anti-nutritional properties for humans needs to be assessed [61][73]. A full evaluation of these species would allow diversification of the offer of healthy and/or functional products and gourmet flavours and provide new business opportunities for small farmers.
In recent decades Chile has made an effort to become a global agro-economic leader. The launch of ‘The Food Transformation Programme’ is a strategic initiative to reinforce the sustainable use of the country’s biodiversity for economic development [62][74]. The key actions of this programme include the provision of (a) high-quality raw material, (b) developing healthy food products and (c) producing natural ingredients and additives for the food industry [63][75]. Despite this effort, there are no specific mentions of native WEPs as sources of natural ingredients for new food products. The updated Chilean National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans [64][76] does not include explicit measures for ensuring the sustainable use and conservation of WEPs. Addressing native Chilean WEPs is critically important to compete in the marketplaces dominated by a few commodity crops [7]. Consequently, an Integrated Approach for Conserving and Sustainably Using native Chilean WEPs is urgently required [8]. Critical information on their chemical composition, sociocultural aspects, biology and ecology are needed [7][8][7,8] to develop and strengthen policies supporting their conservation and sustainable use [8]. It is also relevant in the planning and implementation process to consider the role of local communities that traditionally use the WEPs [18] and assess the impact on people’s diet and livelihoods [7].
