An overview of ethnobotanical knowledge for the enhancement of typical plant food and the development of a local economy: the case of Calabria region (Southern Italy)

The Mediterranean basin harbours a vast number of plant species, many of which are endemic and hold various traditional uses for food purposes. Calabria is one of the Italian regions partially studied from an ethnobotanical point of view. The objective of this work is to provide an overview of the food uses of plants known up to now in Calabria. We considered 9 published papers and 11 unpublished sources from field interviews. The data collected were entered into a Microsoft Access® database. The RFC and CI indices were then calculated for quantitative analysis. We collected a total of 1727 records related to 296 taxa, of which 39 subspecies, from 70 botanical families. The most frequently cited families were Asteraceae with 60 taxa (20.2%, 402 records), followed by Rosaceae (27, 9.1%, 203 records). The taxa with the higher RFC are Borago officinalis (RFC: 0.80), Cichorium intybus (0.70), and Portulaca oleracea (0.65); regarding the CI the highest values were found for Borago officinalis (CI: 3), Rubus ulmifolius (2.20) and Asparagus acutifolius (2.10).