Nutritional potential of underutilized edible plant species in coffee agroforestry systems of Yayu, southwestern Ethiopia

Ethiopia is confronted with the paradox of hosting hundreds of edible plants and having high food and nutritional insecurity. Meals are mainly made up of staples and often lack of protein and micronutrients. Therefore, a large section of the population, particularly children and women, are malnourished. We hypothesize that wild edible plant species can contribute to fulfil the micronutrient demands of local people. Hence, we assessed the nutritional potential of underutilized edible plant species growing in understories of coffee agroforestry systems of southwestern Ethiopia. An ethnobotanical household survey (n = 300) documented the edible existing plants; and a promising subset of them (n = 12) was analysed for nutrient and antinutritional factor content in the lab. All 12 species, except fruits, have higher calcium, iron and zinc contents compared to regularly cultivated crops. Vitamin C was high in Syzygium guineense (330.72 mg/100 g edible parts or EP) and Rubus apetalus (294.19 mg/100 g). Beta-carotene ranged from 9.2 to 75 µg retinol activity equivalent (RAE) /100 g 25 among all species, but was exceptionally high in Rubus apetalus (161.7 µg RAE/100 g). Concerning the antinutritional factors, phytate content varied from 31.06 to 601.65 µg/100 g, being lower in Dioscorea prehensilis (31.06 µg/100 g) and D. alata (90.17 µg/100 g) compared to Carissa spinarum (601.65 µg/100 g) and Solanum nigrum (536.48 µg/100 g). Thus, we conclude that the assessed underutilized species are potential sources of dietary nutrients locally needed, and are notable Amaranthus graecizans, Portulaca oleracea and Dioscorea cayenensis as providers of Ca, Fe and Zn, and the fruit Rubus apetalus of provitamin A.