Wild food plants traditionally consumed in the area of Bologna (Emilia Romagna region, Italy)

Abstract

BackgroundThis research was performed in an area belonging to the province of the city of Bologna (Emilia-Romagna region, Northern Italy). The purpose of the present survey was to record the local knowledge concerning traditional uses of wild food plants and related practices, such as gathering, processing, cooking, therapeutic uses, with the aim of preserving an important part of the local cultural heritage.MethodsThirty-nine people still retaining Traditional Local Knowledge (TLK) were interviewed between March-April 2012 and September - October 2013 by means of open and semi-structured ethnobotanical interviews. For each plant species mentioned, we recorded the botanical family, the English common name, the Italian common and/or folk names, the parts of the plant used, the culinary preparation, and the medicinal usage. The relative frequency of citation index (RFC), a tool that measures the local cultural importance of a plant species, was also included.ResultsThe folk plants mentioned by the respondents belonged to 33 botanical families, of which the Rosaceae (14 plants) and the Asteraceae (9 plants) were the most representative. The species with the highest RFC index (0.77) were Crepis vesicaria subsp. taraxacifolia (Thuill) Thell and Taraxacum officinale Weber. Eleven folk plants were indicated as having therapeutic effects. T. officinale Weber, C. vesicaria subsp. taraxacifolia (Thuill) Thell and Sonchus spp., which are used as food, were reported to be depurative, blood cleaning, refreshing, diuretic and laxative. The most commonly used species was Urtica spp, which was also the most frequently cited for medicinal uses.ConclusionsThe present survey documented the wild food plant traditional knowledge of an area belonging to the province of the city of Bologna (Emilia-Romagna region, Northern Italy). The general perception obtained is that on one side the TLK related to wild food plants has strongly been eroded, mainly due to immigration and urbanization phenomena, whereas on the other side these plants are revaluated today because they are perceived as healthy and also because they represent the preservation of biodiversity and a way of getting back to nature.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1746-4269-10-69) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

A hundred years of change in wild vegetable use in southern Herzegovina

“…On the other hand our list is longer than one from a more developed area, near Bologna in Italy (Sansanelli and Tassoni, 2014), where most of the recorded 33 wild vegetable species are used only by a small percentage of respondents, who listed fewer species of wild food plants per person than in our study (9.8 species compared to 14.2 in our study). Several species are still culturally salient in the study area, and are well recognized and at least occasionally used by the majority of the population.…”

“…The length of the whole list of wild foods (82 species), and wild vegetables in particular (44 species) used in the area is similar or slightly shorter than in many other rural areas in the Mediterranean, which list from 55 to 143 species of wild foods, at least half of them wild vegetables, used per region Ertuğ, 2004;Guarrera, 2003;Łuczaj et al, 2014;Paoletti et al, 1995;Pieroni, 1999;Pieroni et al, 2005Pieroni et al, , 2006Sansanelli and Tassoni, 2014;Tardío et al, 2005). This is in contrast with large parts of Northern and Eastern Europe where the use of wild vegetables has nearly disappeared over the last 150 years ( Kalle and Sõukand, 2012;Svanberg,2012).…”

The traditional food use of wild vegetables in Apulia (Italy) in the light of Italian ethnobotanical literature

“…For a deeper understanding of the findings, we consulted the ethnobotanical bibliography that considered food uses in Italy. Apart from the database of Guarrera (2006b), the fundamental literature has been: Abruzzo (Manzi 1987, 1999, Idolo et al 2010; Basilicata (Giusti et al 2002, Cassandra and Pieroni 2015; Calabria (Passalacqua et al 2006, Nebel et al 2006; Campania (Scherrer et al 2005, De Natale et al 2009, Salerno and Guarrera 2008, Motti et al 2009, Guarino et al 2008); Emilia-Romagna (Sansanelli et al 2014); Friuli Venezia Giulia (Paoletti et al 1995, Dreon and Paoletti 2009, Cassandra and Pieroni 2015; Lazio (Guarrera 1994); Liguria (Bisio andMinuto 1999, Maccioni et al 2004); Molise (Menale et al 2006, di Tizio et al 2012; Piemonte (Mattirolo et al 2001, Gibelli 2004); Puglia (Corrain 1962, Picchi and Pieroni 2005, Guarrera 2006a, Accogli and Marchiori 2009, Nardone et al 2012, Biscotti and Pieroni, 2015; Sardegna (Lancioni et al 2007, Signorini et al 2009, Camarda et al 2017; Sicilia (Lentini and Venza 2007, Arcidiacono et al 2010, Aleo et al 2013; Toscana (Corsi and Pagni 1979, Pieroni 2000…”

Trifoliumspecies – the latest findings on chemical profile, ethnomedicinal use and pharmacological properties

“…A broad range of ethnomedicinal recommendations for use of this plant has been recently extended by reports confirming its traditional use in the treatment of bronchitis, burns, sedation, polycystic ovarian syndrome and heart disorders or as antidiabetic drug and laxative . Besides the therapeutic use, flowers of red clover are listed as one of the wild plant foods traditionally consumed in Bologna (Italy); eating nectar from the flowers in Slovakia has been also reported. Furthermore, T. pratense belongs to wild food plants consumed in Elazığ (Turkey), while aerial parts of T. repens are wild plant food in northwest Yunnan Province (China) .…”