The food plants trade in the Kranggan Mas traditional market, West Java Province, Indonesia: food security and local cuisine

Abstract

The market is the main place for buying and selling alternative food ingredients and is rich in local wisdom. This study aims to explain the diversity of food plants and alternative foods that are traded in the Kranggan Mas traditional market, Bekasi, and their potential as healthy food ingredients. The research was conducted with an ethnobotanical approach with surveys, interviews and observations. Respondents in the study were all traders who traded alternative food ingredients. Qualitative analysis grouping plants based on benefits, families, and parts used. There were 143 species belonging 105 genera and 46 families of food plants that were traded at the Kranggan Mas traditional market. Most of the plants are used as vegetables (51 species), followed by fruit sources (45 species) and followed by cooking spices (38 species) and alternative food (12 species). A total 128 species have been cultivated and 10 species are wild. The availability of diversity of food plants in traditional markets has an impact on the preservation of traditional foods of the surrounding community, such as sayur asem (Betawi ethnicity), pecel (Javanese ethnicity), and lalab (Sundanese ethnicity). Supply and development of food, especially wild and semi-cultivated plants such as Dioscorea spp. and Artocarpus sp., need to be studied further so that preservation and healthy food can be improved.