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Consumption patterns of wild edibles by the Vasavas: a case study from Gujarat, India

BACKGROUND: Wild edibles continue to be a significant contributor to the global food basket in much of the developing world. A consensus has now been formed that information on wild edibles is an important part of ethnobotanical knowledge and hence elucidating region-specific patterns of habitat man...

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Autores principales: Chauhan, Sonali Hasmukh, Yadav, Santosh, Takahashi, Taro, Łuczaj, Łukasz, D’Cruz, Lancelot, Okada, Kensuke
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6116503/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30157859
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13002-018-0254-3
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author Chauhan, Sonali Hasmukh
Yadav, Santosh
Takahashi, Taro
Łuczaj, Łukasz
D’Cruz, Lancelot
Okada, Kensuke
author_facet Chauhan, Sonali Hasmukh
Yadav, Santosh
Takahashi, Taro
Łuczaj, Łukasz
D’Cruz, Lancelot
Okada, Kensuke
author_sort Chauhan, Sonali Hasmukh
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Wild edibles continue to be a significant contributor to the global food basket in much of the developing world. A consensus has now been formed that information on wild edibles is an important part of ethnobotanical knowledge and hence elucidating region-specific patterns of habitat management and consumption assists policy making with regard to natural conservation, human nutrition, and human health. Using an original data set from Gujarat, India, the present research aims to document the collective knowledge of wild edibles possessed by the local Vasava tribe, as well as the habitat usage and consumption trends of these species. METHODS: Data were collected using three approaches: key informant interviews to record the local knowledge of wild edibles and methods of collection, village group discussions to quantify past and present consumption trends, and expert interviews to elucidate the reasons for changing consumption patterns. RESULTS: Through key informant interviews, 90 species of wild edibles from 46 botanical families were identified along with their Vasavi names, plant parts utilized, habitats, and cooking methods. Of these, 60 species were also used medicinally and 15 carried economic value. Different habitats were preferred for collection at different times of the year. Village group discussions unanimously concluded that the consumption of wild edibles has significantly reduced over time. Expert interviews identified the decreased availability of these species in their natural habitats as the most important reason for their reduced consumption. CONCLUSION: The present study has demonstrated that the Vasavas’ collective knowledge of wild edibles is vast and that these species contribute to their dietary diversity throughout the year. The finding of the present study, namely that anthropogenically managed habitats were often preferred over natural environments for the collection of wild edibles, suggests that conservation efforts should be extended beyond wild and human-uninhabited landscapes.
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spelling pubmed-61165032018-10-02 Consumption patterns of wild edibles by the Vasavas: a case study from Gujarat, India Chauhan, Sonali Hasmukh Yadav, Santosh Takahashi, Taro Łuczaj, Łukasz D’Cruz, Lancelot Okada, Kensuke J Ethnobiol Ethnomed Research BACKGROUND: Wild edibles continue to be a significant contributor to the global food basket in much of the developing world. A consensus has now been formed that information on wild edibles is an important part of ethnobotanical knowledge and hence elucidating region-specific patterns of habitat management and consumption assists policy making with regard to natural conservation, human nutrition, and human health. Using an original data set from Gujarat, India, the present research aims to document the collective knowledge of wild edibles possessed by the local Vasava tribe, as well as the habitat usage and consumption trends of these species. METHODS: Data were collected using three approaches: key informant interviews to record the local knowledge of wild edibles and methods of collection, village group discussions to quantify past and present consumption trends, and expert interviews to elucidate the reasons for changing consumption patterns. RESULTS: Through key informant interviews, 90 species of wild edibles from 46 botanical families were identified along with their Vasavi names, plant parts utilized, habitats, and cooking methods. Of these, 60 species were also used medicinally and 15 carried economic value. Different habitats were preferred for collection at different times of the year. Village group discussions unanimously concluded that the consumption of wild edibles has significantly reduced over time. Expert interviews identified the decreased availability of these species in their natural habitats as the most important reason for their reduced consumption. CONCLUSION: The present study has demonstrated that the Vasavas’ collective knowledge of wild edibles is vast and that these species contribute to their dietary diversity throughout the year. The finding of the present study, namely that anthropogenically managed habitats were often preferred over natural environments for the collection of wild edibles, suggests that conservation efforts should be extended beyond wild and human-uninhabited landscapes. BioMed Central 2018-08-29 /pmc/articles/PMC6116503/ /pubmed/30157859 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13002-018-0254-3 Text en © The Author(s). 2018 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Chauhan, Sonali Hasmukh
Yadav, Santosh
Takahashi, Taro
Łuczaj, Łukasz
D’Cruz, Lancelot
Okada, Kensuke
Consumption patterns of wild edibles by the Vasavas: a case study from Gujarat, India
title Consumption patterns of wild edibles by the Vasavas: a case study from Gujarat, India
title_full Consumption patterns of wild edibles by the Vasavas: a case study from Gujarat, India
title_fullStr Consumption patterns of wild edibles by the Vasavas: a case study from Gujarat, India
title_full_unstemmed Consumption patterns of wild edibles by the Vasavas: a case study from Gujarat, India
title_short Consumption patterns of wild edibles by the Vasavas: a case study from Gujarat, India
title_sort consumption patterns of wild edibles by the vasavas: a case study from gujarat, india
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6116503/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30157859
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13002-018-0254-3
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