A review on diversity, conservation and nutrition of wild edible fruits

Abstract

The United Nations adopted the Millennium Declaration of September 2009 to improve the global living conditions through reducing poverty and hunger. However, considerable numbers of people are still living in utter penury and are deprived of a dignified living. In such tough circumstances nature’s free gift in the form of wild edible foods are benefiting the vulnerable and dependent communities. Wild edible plants (WEPs) are the species those are neither cultivated nor domesticated however are available in their wild natural habitat and used as sources of these plants have played a significant role in the development and civilization of human history throughout the ages and globe. These wild edible plants have played a significant role in supplying food and nutritional requirements of poor communities in many rural parts of the world. These wild edibles can be popularized only when they are comparedfor their nutritional and health benefits with major or widely used cultivated plants. The social, cultural, religious, and belief system of the rural communities are incomplete without these wild edible plants. Domestication of these wild edible plants can increase their use and their conservation as well. The present review paper has described the wild edible plants in context of their diversity, traditional knowledge, conservation practices and nutritional composition from the available secondary literature. Authors feel there is still scope to incorporate more contextual variables for explaining more variations embedded with local people’s perception on values and usage of these wild edible fruits.

Uses of wild edible plants in Quara district, northwest Ethiopia: implication for forest management

“…WEPs in the study area were utilized for supplementing staple foods and filling food gaps (drought and famine). In agreement with the present study, other findings elsewhere indicate supplemental role of WEPs [7,15,22] and filling food need during food gap and famine [6,11,15]. Some species such as A. digitata, Z. spina-christi, X. americana, T. indica and B. aegyptiaca were highly cited by respondents which indicate their popularity and relative importance to the local community.…”

“…Wild edible plants are of crucial importance in all parts of the world in supporting global food basket [7]. It is estimated that one billion people use wild foods (mostly from plants) in the world on a daily basis [8].…”

“…WEPs can improve diets, tide people in times of famine, drought and shocks, supplement income and provide genetic material for experimentation, medicine, cultural and spiritual values of the rural community [1,2,9,15]. Vegetables, fruits and seeds for instance provide vitamins and minerals [7,9,16].…”

Six Potential Superior Durian Plants Resulted by Cross Breeding of D. zibethinus and D. Kutejensis From East Kalimantan, Indonesia: Initial Identification

“…Plants with cross-pollination mechanism as well as the genus Durio spp. derived from natural crosses in nature is very difficult to obtain with potentially superior character (Chakravarty et al 2016). Therefore it is important to do a series of morphological identification activities and documentation of potential superior commodities in East Kalimantan.…”

“…The great diversity of species and sources of germplasmDurio spp. in Indonesia is a very important basic capital for breeders (Poerwanto, 2003;Ryugo, 1988;Chakravarty et al, 2016;Handayani, 2017). From the results of plant breeding, it is expected that superior seeds will be obtained both in quality and fruit production.…”