Wild Edible Plants: Ensuring Sustainable Food Security in an Era of Climate Change

A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Security and Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 June 2024 | Viewed by 2292

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
The Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Interests: food science; wild edible plants; edible weeds; biodiversity; species identification; climate change; sustainable development

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Nowadays, there are more significant threats to food security than there were in earlier decades because of accelerating climate change. Some geographical areas may become too hot, dry, rainy, or cold compared to earlier decades. Ordinary crop plants may suffer and produce little or no harvest. However, many edible weeds (wild edible plants) often flourish. The best wild edible plants are mostly weeds that humans have spread almost globally through agriculture. Italians have called them alimurgic plants. They provide raw materials for healthy food even in hard times, times of war, and times when there is total loss of the ordinary harvest of cultivated plants. Fortunately, there has been an increasing number of research articles on the uses of wild edible plants and their chemical constituents since the beginning of the 21st century. Research shows that many invasive plant species provide health-promoting food as ecosystem services. We invite researchers to think of and present their research results from the viewpoint of the theme of this Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Mauri Åhlberg
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • edible weeds
  • wild edible plants
  • sustainable food
  • food security
  • healthy food
  • alimurgic plants

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

15 pages, 490 KiB  
Article
Potential Interest of Oxalis pes-caprae L., a Wild Edible Plant, for the Food and Pharmaceutical Industries
by Jesús Clemente-Villalba, Francisco Burló, Francisca Hernández and Ángel A. Carbonell-Barrachina
Foods 2024, 13(6), 858; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods13060858 - 12 Mar 2024
Viewed by 813
Abstract
(1) Background: Oxalis pes-caprae L. is a plant considered within the group of so-called Wild Edible Plants (WEPs). The particularity of these plants is that they grow only with the natural resources at their disposal. Unfortunately, these types of plants are undervalued, being [...] Read more.
(1) Background: Oxalis pes-caprae L. is a plant considered within the group of so-called Wild Edible Plants (WEPs). The particularity of these plants is that they grow only with the natural resources at their disposal. Unfortunately, these types of plants are undervalued, being regularly uprooted from the fields. (2) Methods: Therefore, this study aimed to valorize the Oxalis pes-caprae plant, analyzing the proximate composition (sugars, organic acids, minerals, amino acids profile, fatty acids content, and volatile profile) of the plant shoots (flower, leaves, and stem) to demonstrate the full potential of this WEP. (3) Results: The results showed that Oxalis pes-caprae can be considered a natural source of minerals; furthermore, 19 essential and non-essential amino acids were found. Regarding the fatty acid profile, flowers are an important source of linoleic acid, and leaves present a high amount of α-linolenic acid. (4) Conclusions: Therefore, this research provides new information that reaffirms the capacity of Oxalis pes-caprae L. (WEP) to be a plant with great future progression due to its nutritional quality since it could be used in the food, nutritional, or pharmaceutical fields. Further research must be conducted to assay the biomass production and the costs of recommending farmers not to destroy this plant in their fields. Full article
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