Botany of Food Plants

Dear Colleagues,

The number of known edible plant species across the world is approximately 30,000, but only 7000 have been either cultivated or collected as food. Nevertheless, currently, only 30 species provide for 95% of the world’s food requirements. The decrease of food diversity could lead to negative effects in human health, food security, and food sovereignty. Therefore, expanding the diversity of food produced, distributed, and consumed is one of the major challenges of planetary nutrition for the coming years. In this scenario, knowledge about the state of biodiversity available in local food systems becomes crucial for the improvement of dietary tools and for the development of new ones. Wild food plants may play a relevant role in human health and wellbeing, and adopting a food-based dietary diversity strategy could lead to social, cultural, economic, and environmental benefits. Moreover, wild plants are identified as functional foods and consumed because they have a clear positive influence on health as extraordinary sources of nutraceutical substances. Therefore, knowing processing techniques and nutritional composition of wild food plants is as important as making an inventory of species. Last but not least, the implications of knowledge and management of the wild food plants for the conservation strategies of vegetation resources at local and regional levels are also pivotal.

In this Topical Collection, articles (original research papers, perspectives, hypotheses, opinions, reviews) that focus on wild edible plant diversity, phytochemical characterizations, sensory and nutritional values, metabolomics, traditional knowledge, ethnogastronomy, sustainable food production, and taxonomy are most welcome.

Prof. Dr. Riccardo Motti
Collection Editor

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