Contributions and perspectives of Brazilian research on wild food plants with a focus on the semiarid region

Abstract

Wild food plants (PAS) are of great value to different peoples in the world for achieving food security. However, despite the rich biodiversity, research on this topic in Brazil is incipient. Thus, the objective was to map the Brazilian scientific articles published on PAS and to identify families and food species in ethnobotanical works, especially for the semiarid region. The scientific review carried out in this article used the following descriptors: food plants, wild, Brazil and Northeast in the “Web of Science” and “Scopus” databases. The survey on an international basis pointed to Brazil with 11 publications, suggesting that studies on PAS are disproportionate to biological diversity. The need for future research on the chemical and nutritional composition of the species used by the populations is highlighted, valuing the ways of life that legitimized the use and applications of plants.