IntroductionIn several countries and regions of Europe ethnobotanical studies and reviews give us a picture of traditionally used wild food plants (e.g. Poland [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8], Spain [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26], Portugal [26,27], Italy [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37], Greece [38,39], France [40], , the whole Mediterranean area [42][43][44], Austria [45][46][47], Slovakia [48] and the Nordic countries [49,50]).Plant use patterns are usually not static. In many cases ethnobotanical studies reveal either a dramatic or gradual loss of traditional knowledge and practices (e.g. [3,50,51]). The changes in patterns of wild plant use differ by region and are associated with lifestyle changes, urbanization, large-scale farming, lesser contact with nature and many other reasons. Moreover, times of famine seem to be in the distant past for industrially developed countries. Food made of cultivated plants and bought from the supermarket appears on the table with relatively little effort, while collecting wild species is more time consuming and season-dependent. In spite of that, the importance of wild food plants for food security and in shaping alternative models of consumption is emphasized [52]. Wild food plants cannot be considered "famine food" only, as many of them were and still are used on several other occasions as well (cf. [53]). Moreover, in Europe there are new phenomena associated with plant use appearing in modern societies. Some of them have to do with migration and new ethnic minorities appearing in cities and bringing new traditions with them. Other phenomena appear due to new trends in nutrition and self-medication facilitated by the instantaneous spread of information via the Internet. On top of that not all the traditions are gone, in some areas for a variety of reasons old traditions are cultivated while in others, they are lost.In this review we would like to give an overall picture of what is happening to the traditional use of wild food plants in different parts of Europe at the dawn of the 21st century. What are wild food plants?The term "wild" refers to those plants that grow without being cultivated. It mostly includes native species growing in their natural habitat, but sometimes managed, as well as introduced species that have been naturalized [15].Apart from that, a large number of other species are perceived as "wild" and labelled in this way, sometimes for marketing purposes (positive term) or as a negative term (as AbstractThe aim of this review is to present an overview of changes in the contemporary use of wild food plants in Europe, mainly using the examples of our home countries: Poland, Italy, Spain, Estonia and Sweden. We set the scene referring to the nutrition of 19th century peasants, involving many famine and emergency foods. Later we discuss such issues as children's wild snacks, the association between the decline of plant knowledge and the disappearance of plant use, the effects of over-exploitation, the decrease of t...

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This paper is a review of local plants used in water infusions as aromatic and refreshing hot beverages (recreational tea) consumed in food-related settings in Europe, and not for specific medicinal purposes. The reviewed 29 areas are located across Europe, covering the post-Soviet countries, eastern and Mediterranean Europe. Altogether, 142 taxa belonging to 99 genera and 40 families were reported. The most important families for making herbal tea in all research areas were Lamiaceae and Asteraceae, while Rosaceae was popular only in eastern and central Europe. With regards to botanical genera, the dominant taxa included Mentha, Tilia, Thymus, Origanum, Rubus and Matricaria. The clear favorite was Origanum vulgare L., mentioned in 61% of the regions. Regionally, other important taxa included Rubus idaeus L. in eastern Europe, Chamaemelum nobile (L.) All. in southern Europe and Rosa canina L. in central Europe. Future research on the pharmacological, nutritional and chemical properties of the plants most frequently used in the tea-making process is essential to ensure their safety and appropriateness for daily consumption. Moreover, regional studies dedicated to the study of local plants used for making recreational tea are important to improve our understanding of their selection criteria, cultural importance and perceived properties in Europe and abroad.

In this article we review the use of tree saps in northern and eastern Europe. Published accounts by travellers, ethnologists and ethnobotanists were searched for historical and contemporary details. Field observations made by the authors have also been used. The presented data shows that the use of tree sap has occurred in most north and eastern European countries. It can be assumed that tree saps were most used where there were extensive stands of birch or maple trees, as these two genera generally produce the largest amount of sap. The taxa most commonly used have been Betula pendula, B. pubescens, and Acer platanoides, but scattered data on the use of several other taxa are presented. Tree sap was used as a fresh drink, but also as an ingredient in food and beverages. It was also fermented to make light alcoholic products like ale and wine. Other folk uses of tree saps vary from supplementary nutrition in the form of sugar, minerals and vitamins, to cosmetic applications for skin and hair and folk medicinal use. Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are the only countries where the gathering and use of sap (mainly birch sap) has remained an important activity until recently, due to the existence of large birch forests, low population density and the incorporation of sap into the former Soviet economic system. It is evident that gathering sap from birch and other trees was more widespread in earlier times. There are records indicating extensive use of tree saps from Scandinavia, Poland, Slovakia and Romania, but it is primarily of a historical character. The extraction of tree sap in these countries is nowadays viewed as a curiosity carried out only by a few individuals. However, tree saps have been regaining popularity in urban settings through niche trading. © The Author(s) 2012

IntroductionIn the quite recent past, during times of war, crop failure or other cases of food shortage, wild food plants have made a substantial addition to the human diet [1,2]. Nowadays, for the vast majority of the population of modern urbanized Europe, wild food plants seem to be of secondary importance as a resource for human nutrition; their gathering requires much more human labour than cultivated crops and vegetables do, their habitats are far from human settlements, and due to the loss of contact with nature, people simply do not know (or cannot recognize) wild plants. Nevertheless, even in Europe there are still many rural locations, where wild food plants are traditionally used on a daily basis. Such locations in southern and Western Europe are much appreciated by researchers in the field of ethnobotany [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. In Northern Europe the research seems to be completed and it seems that not much can be added to it, as in countries with high industrialization and safe social settings the need for wild food is close to zero and the existing ethnographic resources are already thoroughly researched (for a few examples see [14][15][16]).A different situation exists in Eastern Europe within the post-socialist countries. The relatively recent open access to western goods still enables us to remember the use of wild plants on a national level, and research in these areas often gives fruitful results [17,18]. Moreover, some of these countries, like Estonia and its neighbours, have extensive ethnographic collections. While in some of the countries, such as Poland [19][20][21], such resources have been thoroughly analysed, the content of the others is still unknown to the rest of the world, as they are either not used after collection, or their analyses are published in the native languages only. This makes cross-cultural and geographical analysis difficult or even impossible [21].To contribute a small stroke to the pattern of the use of wild plants of Europe from the Estonian side, we need first to review the historical use of wild food plants. The written legacy is rather thin: the few publications in German touching on the use of local species for food in the territory of present-day Estonia were written by Baltic German botanophiles [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. Moreover, they often described Estonia and Livonia [22,23] together, some even including Courland [27,28], and they cover only the period until the mid-19th century. Subsequent times are covered by the memory of respondents to folkloristic and ethnographic surveys, and later discussed by a few enthusiasts in Estonian only -dominantly through popular science publications. Hence, the aim of the study is to critically review all the publications concerning wild edibles covering the period 1770s-1960s. The data collected after 1970 has not yet been reflected in any reliable written source, except for a few of the authors' publications. AbstractThis paper is a historical ethnobotanical review of wild plants used by the resi...

BackgroundThis study examined the use of wild plants in the food, medicinal and veterinary areas within a small territory limited to one village council in the Liubań district of Belarus. The objectives of the research were to document the current and past uses of wild plants in this region for food and human/animal medication; to analyse the food, medicinal and veterinary areas in the context of wild plants; and to qualitatively compare the results with relevant publications concerning the wild food plants of Belarus.MethodsFieldwork was carried out as a practical part of a development cooperation project in May 2016 in 11 villages of the Liubań district. One hundred thirty-four respondents were selected randomly. Information about local uses of wild plants was obtained via semi-structured interviews and the folk-history method. Interview records were digitalized and the data structured in Detailed Use Records (DUR), which were divided into food, medicinal and veterinary areas and then analysed to ascertain local perceptions.ResultsA total of 2252 DUR of wild plants were recorded. Eighty-eight wild plant taxa belonging to 45 plant families were used across all three areas. Of these, 58 taxa were used in the food, 74 in the medicinal and 23 in the veterinary areas. A relatively high percentage of the taxa were used in both the food and medicinal areas (55%) and an even greater percentage in both the medicinal and veterinary areas (87%). Comparison with earlier research on wild food plants shows the considerable difference among seldom-mentioned taxa or uses, showing possible regional differences despite the homogenization of the population during the Soviet era.ConclusionsAs the majority of taxa with overlapping uses belonged to the most utilized plants, there appears to be clear a tendency to use plants in several different areas once they are brought into the home. This may be due to the need to maximize the versatility of limited resources. While the number of wild taxa used is relatively high, the mean number of taxa used per person is quite low, which indicates the relatively minor importance of wild plants in the respective areas in the study region. The low importance of snacks signals that unintended contact with nature has been lost.

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The aim of the current survey was to investigate the complementary self-treatment of the common cold and flu with medicinal plants among pharmacy customers in Estonia. A multiple-choice questionnaire listing 10 plants and posing questions on the perceived characteristics of cold and flu, the effectiveness of plants, help-seeking behaviour, self-treatment and sources of information, was distributed to a sample of participants in two medium size pharmacies. The participants were pharmacy customers: 150 in Tallinn (mostly Russian speaking) and 150 in Kuressaare (mostly Estonian speaking). The mean number of plants used by participants was 4.1. Of the respondents, 69% self-treated the common cold and flu and 28% consulted with a general practitioner. In general, medicinal plants were considered effective in the treatment of the above-mentioned illnesses and 56% of the respondents had used exclusively medicinal plants or their combination with OTC medicines and other means of folk medicine for treatment. The use of medicinal plants increased with age and was more frequent among female than male respondents. Among Estonian-speaking customers lime flowers, blackcurrant and camomile were more frequently used, and among Russian speaking customers raspberry and lemon fruits. Regardless of some statistically significant differences in preferred species among different age, education, sex and nationality groups, the general attitude towards medicinal plants for self-treatment of the common cold and flu in Estonia was very favourable.