Evaluation of nutritional potential of wild edible fruits consumed by indigenous communities of central Punjab, Pakistan

摘要

The current study was based upon nutritional value of wild edible fruits consumed by rural people in Central Punjab, Pakistan. The study area is gifted with fertile agricultural land that is blessed with arid and semi-arid climatic conditions. However, uncultivated landscapes in the region are occupied by wild flora including wild edible fruits. This work focused on the consumers of wild edible fruits in the indigenous communities because of their vast traditional knowledge on the nutritional importance of indigenous wild species. A total of 27 wild edible fruit plants were recorded in the area belonging to 16 families. All the plants were native and have occupied the area for decades or centuries. Ziziphus nummularia , Morus nigra and Morus alba were found to be the most abundant and consumable species. The most rarely occurring species were Asparagus officinalis , Cocculus hirsutus, Cordia gharaf and Grewia tenax. The plant samples were collected, identified, preserved and deposited in the Herbarium of University of Sargodha (SARGU) for future reference. Fruit samples were subjected to proximate analysis such as moisture, crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber, ash and nitrogen free extract (NFE) contents to evaluate their nutritional importance. Moisture content, crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber, ash and NFE ranged from 9.36 to 84.05%, 0.18 to 3.68%, 0.12 to 5.46%, 0.32 to 45.43%, 0.17 to 19.68% and 32.52 to 99.03% respectively. Thus, these wild edible fruits were found promising alternatives of food.