The genus Ficus (Moraceae) used in diet: Its plant diversity, distribution, traditional uses and ethnopharmacological importance
The genus Ficus (Moraceae) used in diet: Its plant diversity, distribution, traditional uses and ethnopharmacological importance
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DOI：
10.1016/j.jep.2018.07.027
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发表时间：
2018
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Yuhua Wang
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Yinxian Shi;Aye Mya Mon;Yao Fu;Yu Zhang;Chen Wang;Xuefei Yang;Yuhua Wang
Ethnopharmacological relevance: A new field of enthnopharmacology has opened, where pharmacological studies.draw their attention from the conventional only-medicine approach towards the dietary dimension. The uses of.Ficus species in the human diet have been extensively documented by ethnobotanical field surveyors. Overlap.commonly exist between the dietary and medicinal selection of Ficus species but not for choices of the plant parts.and development stages, which leave a large space for ethnopharmacological study..Aims of the study: 1) To review published works on the dietary uses of Ficus species and their food-medicine.overlap based on traditional uses, and 2) to spark interest in ethnopharmacological studies on the dietary uses of.Ficus species..Materials and methods: Data was collected and analyzed from many sources, including published and unpublished.ethnobotanical field surveys, taxonomic and distribution information, international journals, books,.thesis, floras, reports and professional databases. The possible biases arising from data sources are assessed to.make sure that the dataset are global representative..Results: A total of 132 Ficus species are reported for dietary uses, including one subspecies and four varieties..Those species are found across all of the six subgenera of the genus Ficus. For distribution, 98 species from the.Indo-Australasian region, 27 species from the African tropics (with one species, F. palmata, from both the two.regions) and 8 from the Neotropics. The parts most commonly used are the figs (i.e. syconium or fruits) (110.species) and leaves (67 species), in various growth stages. It is also found that the certain plant parts of 78.species are used both for dietary and medicinal purpose. Among which the figs are frequently cited in the.treatment of diarrhea and oligogalactia, the leaves in the treatment of diarrhea, stomach complaintsas, antidote.and diabetes, the latex in the treatment of intestinal worms and wounds, and the barks in the treatment of.diarrhea..Conclusions: We demonstrate that throughout its area of distribution, the genus Ficus is generally used as a.dietary plant, although use of a individual species seems uncommon. Furthermore, we highlight the diet-medicine.overlap of the uses of this genus, which should enable further understanding of the potential for broader.health benefits, rather than limiting studies in this genus to its only-medicinal properties
