Ethnobotanical, Nutritional, and Phytochemical Compositions of Wild Edible Plants Used by the Meinit Community, Southwestern Ethiopia, and Their Potential for Value-Added Food Formulation

Abstract

Background: Undernutrition and hidden hunger continue to be serious public health concerns in many middle-income countries. For instance, over 33 million people face chronic undernourishment and food insecurity of which one quarter are in need of urgent food assistance in Ethiopia. Despite terrestrial animal source foods (TASFs) rich many nutrients such as protein, iron and vitamin B12 and own more bioavailable nutrients than plant source food, TASFs have been challenging to access to low income household due to unaffordable price for disadvantage people, and the TASFs are under scrutiny as it is associated with negative impact to environmental health in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, personal health and public health issue. Plant based food approach is a strategy to combat undernutrition since it is an alternative approach to sustainable environment, human health and healthy diet perspectives due to it contains unsaturated fatty acid, cholesterol free, rich in fiber and some minerals