Beneficial or hazardous? A comprehensive study of 24 elements from wild edible plants from Angola

Authors

  • Christin Baumgärtel Chair of Botany, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5169-0599
  • Linda Götzke Chair of Inorganic Molecular Chemistry, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany
  • Jan J. Weigand Chair of Inorganic Molecular Chemistry, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7323-7816
  • Christoph Neinhuis Chair of Botany, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9965-4394
  • Mazecana H.G. Panzo University of Kimpa Vita, Province of Uíge, Bairro Popular, Uíge, Angola
  • Francisco Afonso University of Kimpa Vita, Province of Uíge, Bairro Popular, Uíge, Angola
  • Thea Lautenschläger Chair of Botany, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5073/JABFQ.2023.096.004

Abstract

Angola suffers from a high child mortality rate and a prevalence of anemia due to malnutrition. The aim of this study is to provide a comprehensive overview of the mineral content of 43 wild edible plants. A total of 24 different elements (aluminum, antimony, arsenic, cadmium, calcium, chromium, cobalt, copper, iron, lead, lithium, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, potassium, selenium, silicon, sodium, strontium, titanium, thallium, vanadium, zinc) were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy to identify nutritional beneficial and hazardous plants. For the majority of studied species (31 of 43) data lack completely. For the remaining, only macronutrient contents are published yet, determining their (ultra)trace element and heavy metal contents for the first time. None of the examined plants pose a risk to human health due to low heavy metal contents, seasonality, and low amounts of consumed plant parts. Iron and zinc rich plant parts, such as fruits of Canarium schweinfurthii, or leaves of Crassocephalum rubens, Solanum americanum, and Piper umbellatum could help combating deficiency syndromes. The genus Landolphia shows to be an aluminum hyperaccumulator with aluminum contents >1000 mg/kg. Results of this study serve as a database for upcoming research. The nutritional value of edible plants is evaluated.

Downloads

Published

2023-05-03

Issue

Vol. 96 (2023): Journal of Applied Botany and Food Quality

Section

Plant food chemistry

License

Copyright (c) 2023 The Author(s)

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

From Volume 92 (2019) on, the content of the journal is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Any user is free to share and adapt (remix, transform, build upon) the content as long as the original publication is attributed (authors, title, year, journal, issue, pages) and any changes are labelled.

The copyright of the published work remains with the authors. If you want to use published content beyond what the CC-BY license permits, please contact the corresponding author, whose contact information can be found on the last page of the respective article. In case you want to reproduce content from older issues (before CC BY applied), please contact the corresponding author to ask for permission.