Medicinal and food plants in ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology: Folk functional foods in Catalonia (Iberian Peninsula)

Abstract

Ethnobotanical studies have focused with particular intensity -especially in industrialized countries- on food and medicinal plant properties and management claimed by informants. Nevertheless, the uses on the interface between both areas have not been addressed to the same proportion, although they have a very important place both in ethnological and in health issues. We present in this paper the results of ethnobotanical prospections carried out in Catalonia regarding folk functional foods and nutraceuticals. A total amount of 1,888 use reports from 195 taxa, belonging to 64 botanical families, corresponding to this category have been collected and analyzed. The most quoted taxa are Thymus vulgaris, Allium sativum, Ruta chalepensis and Sambucus nigra, the most cited families are Lamiaceae, Rosaceae, Rutaceae, Amaryllidaceae, Asteraceae and Apiaceae. Aerial parts of the plants are by an ample margin the most used, and alcoholic beverages are the most common way of preparation of the products, closely followed by the direct ingestion of raw materials. The results obtained in ethnobotanical prospections related to the folk functional food (FFF) concept are numerous and robust enough to appear as promising for new commercial nutraceutical products development.