The Contribution of Wild Edible Plants to the Mediterranean Diet: An Ethnobotanical Case Study Along the Coast of Campania (Southern Italy)

The Contribution of Wild Edible Plants to the Mediterranean Diet: An Ethnobotanical Case Study Along the Coast of Campania (Southern Italy).Wild edible plants, an essential component of people's diets in the Mediterranean basin, are consumed because they have a positive influence on health, supplying the body with microelements, vitamins, phenols, flavonoids, antioxidants, and fiber. In this paper we provide a list of wild plants used in the local cuisine along the coast of Campania, highlighting the medicinal properties of the most widely used species. Fieldwork was conducted from April 2017 to September 2019; in all, 69 informants were interviewed. We carried out an extensive literature review searching both national and international journals for ethnobotanical articles concerning the whole of Italy and especially the region of Campania, published from 1963 to 2019. The relative frequency of citation (RFC) index for each species is provided. Based on the interviews, 85 species and subspecies distributed in 29 families are documented as being used as food. Asteraceae was the most cited family (26.5%) followed by Brassicaceae and Lamiaceae (7.2%). The culinary uses of 11 wild species (13.5% of the total) were hitherto unreported in the ethnobotanical literature for Campania. The present study confirms the persistence of traditional plant use in the region of Campania. Ethnobotanical data, as well as the phytochemical and nutritional profiles of the species in question, offer insights into designing new dishes such as food pairing with other ingredients to improve nutritional and/or sensory quality (e.g., bitterness reduction, flavor enhancement, antioxidant bioavailability).