Abstract:Hasankeyf is an ancient city located on the shores of the Tigris River in Batman Province, southeast Turkey. The town and some of its surrounding villages will be soon submerged, due to the construction of Ilısu Dam, which will force the residents to move to new settlements. The aim of the present study was to collect and record the traditional knowledge regarding the indigenous wild plants that will be submerged by this flooding. The study was carried out between March 2017 and April 2019. Interviews were con… Show more
“…This remarkable number of currently gathered wild food plants shows that Kurdistan still represents an extraordinary hotspot of traditional foraging in the world. This is confirmed also by all recent field studies conducted in different areas inhabited by Kurds [6–9, 11–13, 17], especially if we compare them with research outcomes recently found in surrounding non-Kurdish areas [34–36].…”
Section: Resultssupporting
confidence: 86%
“…The gathering of raw crocus corms (Fig. 7) in our study area is still very commonly practiced, even by young people, and it is popular also in some areas of Turkish Kurdistan and of Jordan [11, 12, 31]. Fig.…”
BackgroundIraqi Kurdistan is a special hotspot for bio-cultural diversity and for investigating patterns of traditional wild food plant foraging, considering that this area was the home of the first Neolithic communities and has been, over millennia, a crossroad of different civilizations and cultures. The aim of this ethnobotanical field study was to cross-culturally compare the wild food plants traditionally gathered by Kurdish Muslims and those gathered by the ancient Kurdish Kakai (Yarsan) religious group and to possibly better understand the human ecology behind these practices.MethodsTwelve villages were visited and 123 study participants (55 Kakai and 68 Muslim Kurds) were interviewed on the specific topic of the wild food plants they currently gather and consume.ResultsThe culinary use of 54 folk wild plant taxa (corresponding to 65 botanical taxa) and two folk wild mushroom taxa were documented. While Kakais and Muslims do share a majority of the quoted food plants and also their uses, among the plant ingredients exclusively and commonly quoted by Muslims non-weedy plants are slightly preponderant. Moreover, more than half of the overall recorded wild food plants are used raw as snacks, i.e. plant parts are consumed on the spot after their gathering and only sometimes do they enter into the domestic arena. Among them, it is worth mentioning the consumption of raw wild crocus corms, also still common in Turkish Kurdistan and that of wild tulip bulbs, which was documented to be popular until the beginning of the twentieth century in the Middle East. Comparison with other ethnobotanical field studies recently conducted among surrounding populations has shown that Kurds tend to gather and consume the largest number of non-weedy wild vegetables.ConclusionThe collected data indicate robust traces of nomadic pastoralism in Kurdish traditional foraging. This finding confirms that studies on wild food plant gathering in the Fertile Crescent and Turco-Arabic-Iranic regions of the Middle East are crucial for understanding the possible evolution of wild food plant gathering through history within the post-Neolithic continuum between pastoralism and horticulturalism.
“…This remarkable number of currently gathered wild food plants shows that Kurdistan still represents an extraordinary hotspot of traditional foraging in the world. This is confirmed also by all recent field studies conducted in different areas inhabited by Kurds [6–9, 11–13, 17], especially if we compare them with research outcomes recently found in surrounding non-Kurdish areas [34–36].…”
Section: Resultssupporting
confidence: 86%
“…The gathering of raw crocus corms (Fig. 7) in our study area is still very commonly practiced, even by young people, and it is popular also in some areas of Turkish Kurdistan and of Jordan [11, 12, 31]. Fig.…”
BackgroundIraqi Kurdistan is a special hotspot for bio-cultural diversity and for investigating patterns of traditional wild food plant foraging, considering that this area was the home of the first Neolithic communities and has been, over millennia, a crossroad of different civilizations and cultures. The aim of this ethnobotanical field study was to cross-culturally compare the wild food plants traditionally gathered by Kurdish Muslims and those gathered by the ancient Kurdish Kakai (Yarsan) religious group and to possibly better understand the human ecology behind these practices.MethodsTwelve villages were visited and 123 study participants (55 Kakai and 68 Muslim Kurds) were interviewed on the specific topic of the wild food plants they currently gather and consume.ResultsThe culinary use of 54 folk wild plant taxa (corresponding to 65 botanical taxa) and two folk wild mushroom taxa were documented. While Kakais and Muslims do share a majority of the quoted food plants and also their uses, among the plant ingredients exclusively and commonly quoted by Muslims non-weedy plants are slightly preponderant. Moreover, more than half of the overall recorded wild food plants are used raw as snacks, i.e. plant parts are consumed on the spot after their gathering and only sometimes do they enter into the domestic arena. Among them, it is worth mentioning the consumption of raw wild crocus corms, also still common in Turkish Kurdistan and that of wild tulip bulbs, which was documented to be popular until the beginning of the twentieth century in the Middle East. Comparison with other ethnobotanical field studies recently conducted among surrounding populations has shown that Kurds tend to gather and consume the largest number of non-weedy wild vegetables.ConclusionThe collected data indicate robust traces of nomadic pastoralism in Kurdish traditional foraging. This finding confirms that studies on wild food plant gathering in the Fertile Crescent and Turco-Arabic-Iranic regions of the Middle East are crucial for understanding the possible evolution of wild food plant gathering through history within the post-Neolithic continuum between pastoralism and horticulturalism.
“…The powder of Glycyrrhiza glabra roots and rhizomes added to the traditional Armenian bread (lavash) is used for the same ailments. The persistence of such a food-medicine continuum occurs in many societies throughout the world [78,79], including Eurasia [80][81][82][83].…”
Background: The aim of the study was to record wild plants and fungi sold in the capital of Armenia. This is the first large market survey in the Caucasus region. The area of the Caucasus is characterised by a very high diversity of climates, flora and languages which results in very rich traditions of plant use. Methods: Interviews were conducted and photos and voucher specimens were taken during multiple visits made over 4 years. We studied 37 locations and 136 people were interviewed. Results: As many as 163 plant species, belonging to 44 families and 110 genera, were recorded on Yerevan markets. This included 148 wild food species, 136 medicinal species, 45 species sold for decoration, 15 species of wood and 9 species of insect repellents. Also 14 wild species of fungi were sold, including 12 food species. Conclusions: The list of plants sold in the markets of Yerevan is very extensive and diverse, and includes many species of wild fruits, vegetables and medicinal plants, some of them never listed in ethnobotanical directories before. A characteristic feature of this market is a large representation of lacto-fermented products. Some of the species sold in Yerevan have never been reported as human food either in wild edible plant word lists or in ethnobotanical publications, e.g. Angelica tatianae, Ferulago setifolia and Heracleum chorodanum. Fungi are also well represented.
“…The pure leaf extract of Olea ferruginea has special inhibitory effects on fungal and bacterial pathogens [ 72 ]. Ethanolic leaves extract of Acacia modesta showed significant activity against E. coli , Proteus mirabilis, S. aureus, K. pneumonia, P. aeruginosa, S. typhi, B. cereus and B. subtilis and Streptococcus pneumonia [ 73 ]. This shows that further research on the reported ethnomedicinal plant species can lead to the recognition of novel agents with useful properties.…”
The current study on the traditional use of medicinal plants was carried out from February 2018 to March 2020, in Gokand Valley, District Buner, Pakistan. The goal was to collect, interpret, and evaluate data on the application of medicinal plants. Along with comprehensive notes on individual plants species, we calculated Use Value (UV), Relative Frequency of Citation (RFC), Use Report (UR), Fidelity Level (FL), Informant Consensus Factor (FCI), as well as Family Importance Value (FIV). During the current study, a total of 109 species belonging to 64 families were reported to be used in the treatment of various ailments. It included three families (four species) of Pteridophytes, 58 families (99 species) of angiosperm, one family (three species) of Gymnosperms, and two families (three species) of fungi. The article highlights the significance of domestic consumption of plant resources to treat human ailments. The UV varied from 0.2 (Acorus calamus L.) to 0.89 (Acacia modesta Wall.). The RFC ranged from 0.059 (Acorus calamus L. and Convolvulus arvensis L.) to 0.285 (Acacia modesta Wall.). The species with 100% FL were Acacia modesta Wall. and the fungus Morchella esculenta Fr., while the FCI was documented from 0 to 0.45 for gastro-intestinal disorders. The conservation ranks of the medicinal plant species revealed that 28 plant species were vulnerable, followed by rare (25 spp.), infrequent (17 spp.), dominant (16 spp.), and 10 species endangered. The traditional use of plants needs conservation strategies and further investigation for better utilization of natural resources.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
