Abstract

  Food and nutrition (hidden hunger) for rapidly growing global populations (expected to increase 10 billion by 2050) are major concern of public health issue in most of the global developing countries. One way to tackle these problems is through the intervention of local traditional less-explored high-value food crops as dietary supplements for ensuring food and nutritional security. The Diplazium esculentum (Retz.) Sw (also called as 'Vegetable fern' or 'Liguna'; fam. Athyriaceae) is an underutilized wild wetland pteridophytes occurring commonly throughout world, from sea level to 2,300m. The young frond and rhizomes of D. esculentum are generally used as green vegetables during the monsoon season, which are reported to possess notable nutritional and medicinal properties. This research article highlights the detailed nutritive phytochemical (primary and secondary metabolites, essential mineral content, dietary fibres, calorific value etc) profiling of young fronds of D. esculentum. Our results suggest that D. esculentum fronds contains rich amounts of protein (52.3%), carbohydrate (28.2%), antioxidants (Vitamin C etc) and exceptionally high contents of important minerals (Ca, Fe, Na), dietary fibre (17.44%) with good calorific energy value (324 Kcal/100 gm). The overall results suggest that, the young fronds of D. esculentum contains rich source of phyto-nutrients that may be commercially utilized for the development of healthcare value added products as a sustainable solution to the health and nutritional security.

Keywords: Diplazium esculentum; Edible Ferns; Food and Nutritional Security; Phytonutrient Analysis; Therapeutic Phyto-Constituents; Traditional Vegetables; Wetland Pteridophytes

References

1. Lense O. "Biological screening of selected traditional medicinal plants species utilized by local people of Manokwari, West Papua Province". Nusantara Bioscience 3 (2011): 145-150.
2. Bisht IS., et al. "Wild plant food resources in agricultural systems of Uttarakhand hills in India and its potential role in combating malnutrition and enhancing human health". Journal of Food Science and Toxicology 1 (2018): 3.
3. Veena G M and Christopher G. "Nutritional value of selected wild edible leaves used by tribal communities of Attappady, Southern Western Ghats". International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition5 (2017): 126-132.
4. Choudhury J., et al. “Antioxidant activity and phytochemical screening of two edible Wetland pteridophytes Diplazium esculentum (retz) sw and Marsilea minuta - A comparative study". World Journal of Pharmaceutical Research 3.9 (2017): 195-203.
5. Singh LS., et al. “Ethnobotanical uses of some pteridophytic species in Manipur". The Indian Fern Journal 18 (2002): 14-17.
6. Kaushik A., et al. “FRAP (Ferric reducing ability of plasma) assay and effect of Diplazium esculentum (Retz) Sw. (a green vegetable of North India) on central nervous system". Indian Journal of Natural Products and Resources2 (2012): 228-231.
7. Akter S., et al. “Investigation of In vitro Antioxidant, Antimicrobial and Cytotoxic activity of Diplazium esculentum (RETZ). SW". International Journal of advances in Pharmacy, Biology and Chemistry 3 (2014): 723-733.
8. Amit S., et al. “In-Vitro Anthelmintic Activity of Diplazium esculentum (Retz.) Swiss Rhizome Extract". Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry 4 (2012): 84.
9. Chawla S., et al. “Analgesic activity of medically important leaf of Diplazium esculentum". African Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology 25 (2015): 628-632.
10. Junejo JA., et al. “Exploration of anti-oxidant, anti-diabetic and hepatoprotective activity of Diplazium esculentum- A wild edible plants from North Eastern India". Future Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences 4 (2018): 93-101.
11. Maynard AJ. "Methods in Food Analysis". Academic Press New York (1970): 176.
12. Harborne JB. "Phytochemical Methods". A guide to modern techniques of plant analysis, 2^nd (1984).
13. "Official methods of analysis of AOAC International Association of Official Analytical Chemists". Washington, DC, USA (1996).
14. Pandey M., et al. “Evaluation of nutritional composition and antioxidant activity of herbal leaves". The World Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences Pharmaceutical Sciences 8 (2016): 1396-1402.
15. Tongco JVV., et al. “Nutritional and phytochemical screening, and total phenolic and flavonoid content of Diplazium esculentum (Retz.) Sw. from Philippines". Journal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research 8 (2014): 238-242.
16. Zannah F., et al. “Phytochemical Screening of Diplazium esculentum as Medicinal Plant from Central Kalimantan, Indonesia". AIP Conference Proceedings 1844 (2017): 050001.

Citation

Citation: Sanjay Mohan Gupta., et al. “Nutrients Analysis of Diplazium esculentum: Underutilized Wild Wetland Pteridophytes Ensure Food and Nutritional Security". ActaActa Scientific Nutritional Health 4.11 (2020): 46-49.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Sanjay Mohan Gupta., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.