Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2025 Jun 30;14(13):2006.
doi: 10.3390/plants14132006.

Wild Species from the Asteraceae Family, Traditionally Consumed in Some Mediterranean Countries

Ekaterina Kozuharova  1 , Giuseppe Antonio Malfa  2   3 , Rosaria Acquaviva  2   3 , Benito Valdés  4 , Daniela Batovska  5 , Christina Stoycheva  1 , Moh Rejdali  6 , Pasquale Marino  7 , Vivienne Spadaro  8
Affiliations
Review

Wild Species from the Asteraceae Family, Traditionally Consumed in Some Mediterranean Countries

Ekaterina Kozuharova et al. Plants (Basel). .

Abstract

Mediterranean countries represent a dynamic hub of cultural exchange, where wild plants play a significant role in culinary traditions. A substantial number of these plants belong to the Asteraceae family. The climate similarities across the region contribute to the common distribution ranges of the plants. While many species are widely distributed, others are confined to specific subregions, such as the western Mediterranean, eastern Mediterranean, or North Africa. Only six taxa of the traditionally consumed wild Asteraceae plants are endemic to just one country. This review focuses on wild plants from the Asteraceae family traditionally used as food across 13 study sites, comprising 11 countries in the Mediterranean and adjacent territories, including both mainland areas and three islands. The objective is to identify and analyze patterns of native distribution in relation to actual consumption. As a result, 167 edible wild plants from the Asteraceae family were identified. Their patterns of distribution and consumption are described and analyzed. The highest number of these edible wild plants from the Asteraceae family is consumed in Spain (n = 65), followed by southern Italy (n = 44) and Morocco (n = 32). A similar pattern of consumption is seen in Turkey (n = 24), Sicily (n = 23), Jordan and Palestine (n = 21), and Bulgaria (n = 21). It is notable that 106 plants are used as food in one particular country only, although most of them are distributed in several other countries. Many of the species consumed in certain countries are not used by neighboring populations, highlighting a limited cross-border transmission of ethnobotanical knowledge. The findings from a Jaccard index statistical analysis are discussed.

Keywords: Compositae; Jaccard index; Mediterranean basin; distribution; edible wild plants; ethnobotanical knowledge; similarity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Study sites. Legend: JO—Jordan and Palestine; IT—southern Italy; MA—Morocco; Sicily; ES—Spain; SY—Syria; TR—Turkey (Türkiye); AL—Albania; AM—Armenia; BG—Bulgaria; Crete; CY—Cyprus; GR—Greece. Credit https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BlankMap-Europe-v4.png. accessed on 16 May 2020.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Number of wild species from the Asteraceae family distributed and consumed in each of the study sites. The x-axis presents the studied countries, and the y-axis presents the number of wild species from the family Asteraceae, respectively distributed (green) and consumed (purple) in each of the study sites.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Percentage of traditionally consumed versus distributed edible wild plants from the Asteraceae family in each country. The x-axis presents the studied countries, and the y-axis presents the percentage of consumed versus distributed edible wild plants from the Asteraceae family in each country.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Percentage of distribution in each study site versus all detected edible wild plants from the Asteraceae family. The x-axis presents the studied countries, and the y-axis presents the percentage of distribution in each country versus all detected edible wild plants from the family Asteraceae.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Number of wild plants from the Asteraceae family with limited consumption in only one country. The x-axis presents the studied countries, and the y-axis presents the number of wild species of the Asteraceae family traditionally consumed as food.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Similarity between pairs of countries in both the traditional consumption of wild Asteraceae and the distribution of these edible wild plants, expressed as JI%.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Mundy J.H. Europe in the High Middle Ages: 1150-1300. 3rd ed. Routledge; London, UK: Taylor and Fransis Group; London, UK: New York, NY, USA: 2014. pp. 1–432.
    1. Vryonis S. Religious Change and Continuity in the Balkans and Anatolia from the Fourteenth through the Sixteenth Century. In: Vryonis S., Wiesbaden H., editors. Islam and Cultural Change in the Middle Ages. Volume 4. Near Eastern Center, University of California; Los Angeles, CA, USA: 1975. pp. 127–141.
    1. Bresc H. A Companion to Sardinian History, 500–1500. Brill; Leiden, The Netherlands: 2017. Medieval and modern Sicily and the kingdoms of Sardinia and Corsica; pp. 141–164. - DOI
    1. Stenner D. Mediterranean crossroads: Spanish-Moroccan relations in past and present. J. N. Afric. Stud. 2019;24:7–16. doi: 10.1080/13629387.2018.1459089. - DOI
    1. Torija-Isasa M., Matallana-González M. A Historical Perspective of Wild Plant Foods in the Mediterranean Area. In: Sánchez-Mata M., Tardío J., editors. Mediterranean Wild Edible Plants. Springer; New York, NY, USA: 2016. pp. 3–13. - DOI

LinkOut - more resources