Abstract
This paper provides an overview of wild food plants traditionally used in the gastronomy of Tuscany, an Italian region with high biological diversity and whose cultural heritage is well known. Forty-nine bibliographic sources, including five unpublished studies, were reviewed. A list of species with ecological characteristics, plant parts used, use category (food, liquor, or seasoning), methods of preparation (raw or cooked), and recipes is presented. The use of 357 taxa (3711 use reports, URs), was recorded, belonging to 215 genera and 72 botanical families. Over the total taxa, 12 are new for Tuscany, 52 seem not to be present in other Italian regions, and 54 were not detected in the consulted European ethnobotanical literature. Of these taxa, 324 (3117 URs) were used as food, while 49 (178 URs) and 81 (416 URs) were used for liquor and seasoning, respectively. Of the 17 different food recipes, cooked vegetables constituted the largest group, followed by salads, omelets, snacks, and fillings. The chemical composition of the recorded food plants and the possible safety risks associated to their consumption, as well as their traditional medicinal use, are also shown. This review highlights the richness of ethnobotanical knowledge in Tuscany. Such biocultural heritage can be a “source of inspiration” for agriculture. As a reservoir of potential new crops, wild edible flora may contribute to the development of emerging horticultural sectors such as vertical farming and microgreens production. Moreover, the nutrient content and healthy properties of many wild food plants reported in this study has the ability to meet consumer demand for functional foods.
Highlights
Consumption of wild food plants has often been ignored and marginalized by modern agricultural production systems, as it is considered an emergency practice to integrate an otherwise poor diet during times of food shortage due to war or crop failure [1,2,3,4]
In their comparative analysis on the wild food plants gathered in the Mediterranean Basin, Leonti et al [45] identified 84 species for Italy (Castelmezzano in Basilicata and Gallicianò in Reggio Calabria), 147 for Greece and 173 for Spain (Cuenca, Albacete, and Murcia provinces)
Data presented and discussed in this paper provide information on the use of wild food plants in the Tuscan gastronomic tradition, and show that these biological resources can play an important role even today
Summary
Consumption of wild food plants has often been ignored and marginalized by modern agricultural production systems, as it is considered an emergency practice to integrate an otherwise poor diet during times of food shortage due to war or crop failure [1,2,3,4]. Discovering that many of these plants can play an important role in a healthy diet as an alternative source of minerals and vitamins, as well as antioxidant secondary compounds [12,13,14,15] and essential oils [16], was a turning point Their use was first promoted by health-oriented people in the framework of a healthy lifestyle, but it is suggested as a part of a new food strategy to manage malnutrition problems [5] and diversify the human diet [17], in local food systems. They are adapted to withstand stressful conditions typical of marginal lands where grazing is widespread and arable agriculture consists of low-input traditional cultivation methods [23,24]
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