RESUMEN
Introduction: India's north-eastern hill region (NEH) is one of the biodiversity hotspots, inhabited by several tribal communities still maintaining their traditional food habits. Much of their food resources are drawn from wild sources. Materials and methods: Fourteen species of wild edible plants of high ethnic importance were collected from remote localities of Nagaland and Meghalaya states of the NEH region of India for nutritional profiling. Nutritional profiling of leaves of six species comprising Gynura cusimbua, Garcinia cowa, Herpetospermum operculatum, Plukenetia corniculata, Trichodesma khasianum, and Elatostemma sessile is conducted first time under present study. Samples were analyzed as per the Official Method of Analysis (AOAC) and standard methods. Results and discussion: The range of variation in proximate composition was observed for moisture (72-92%), protein (1.71-6.66%), fat (0.22-1.36%), dietary fibre (5.16-14.58%), sugar (0.30-3.41%), and starch (0.07-2.14%). The highest protein content (6.66%) was recorded in Herpetospermum operculatum, followed by Trichodesma khasianum (5.89%) and Plukenetia corniculata (5.27%). Incidentally, two of these also have high iron (>7.0 mg/100 g) and high zinc (>2.0 mg/100 g) contents, except Trichodesma khasianum, which has low zinc content. High antioxidant activities in terms of gallic acid equivalent (GAE) by the cupric ion reducing antioxidant capacity (CUPRAC) method ranged from 1.10 to 8.40 mg/100 g, and by the Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) method ranged from 0.10 to 1.9 mg/100 g, while phenol content ranged between 0.30 and 6.00 mg/100 g. These wild vegetables have high potential because of their nutritional properties and are fully capable of enhancing sustainability and improving ecosystem services. Efforts were also initiated to mainstream these resources, mainly for widening the food basket of native peoples.
RESUMEN
The eastern Himalayas, one of the important hotspots of global biodiversity, have a rich diversity of wild edible fruit trees. The fruits of these tree species have been consumed by the tribal people since time immemorial. However, there is limited information available on the biochemical and antioxidant properties of the fruits. Therefore, the present investigation was undertaken to study the physico-chemical and antioxidant properties of the nine most important wild fruit trees. Among the species, Pyrus pashia had the maximum fruit weight (37.83 g), while the highest juice (43.72%) and pulp content (84.67%) were noted in Haematocarpus validus and Myrica esculenta, respectively. Maximum total soluble solids (18.27%), total sugar (11.27%), moisture content (88.39%), ascorbic acid content (63.82 mg/100 g), total carotenoids (18.47 mg/100 g), and total monomeric anthocyanin (354.04 mg/100 g) were recorded in H. validus. Docynia indica had the highest total phenolic content (19.37 mg GAE/g), while H. validus recorded the highest total flavonoids and flavanol content. The antioxidant activities of the different fruits ranged from 0.17 to 0.67 IC50 for DPPH activity and 3.59-13.82 mg AAE/g for FRAP. These fruits had attractive pigmentation of both pulp and juice and were a good potential source for the extraction of natural edible color in the food industry. The fruits also possess high market prices; Prunus nepalensis fetched $ 34.10-$ 141.5 per tree. Therefore, these fruits are rich sources of antioxidants, pigments and have a high market value for livelihood and nutritional security.