An overview of wild edible fruits of Western Ghats, India

Abstract

Fruits are the nature’s gift to mankind, they are not only delicious and refreshing, but also nutritionally rich and supplementing the daily diet of the people. This paper reviews the ethnobotanical knowledge on wild edible fruits traditionally used by the tribal and rural peoples of the Western Ghats, India. There are 237 wild fruiting plants belonging to 136 genera, comes under 65 families used by tribal community for edible purpose, which includes 37 endemic and 11 red listed plants. Among 237 species majority were trees (107), followed by shrubs (75), climbers (42) and herbs (13). The highest numbers of species in the families are Malvaceae, Myrtaceae, Phyllanthaceae, Moraceae, Rutaceae etc. The wild edible plants are integral part of food sources of the tribals and rural peoples and are considered as the oldest food stuff of peoples and provide primary dietary constituents of their daily life. Moreover, it plays a vital role in combating food security also. Most of the wild edible plants have additional usages, some of them have medicinal properties while some others having anti-nutritional factors and are poisonous too. The uses of wild edibles are now mainly confined to tribal or allied community. Scientific research on suitable species is suggested to identify the competent species to replace/improve/substitute the common cultivated species in chemical constitutent, nutritional value and also to explore the possibilities of wild edible plants to provide food security for the growing population.