Medicinal and nutritional aspects of wild edible fruits from Western Ghat of India

Abstract

The Western Ghats is a mountain range western coast of the Indian peninsula that covers an area of 160,000 km2.
It is one of the eight biodiversity hotspots in the world. It contains a very large proportion of the country’s flora
and fauna, many of which are endemic to this region. According to a survey, the Western Ghats are older than
the Himalayas and home to many wild edible fruits that are rarely eaten and are traditionally being used as
medicine for several ailments. These wild edible fruits provide a variety of nutrients, vitamins and secondary
metabolites. Hence, this review, we documented 28 important wild edible fruiting plants from Western Ghat.
The most species of wild edible fruit plants belong to the families of Anacardiaceae, Clusiaceae, Malvaceae,
Myrtaceae, Phyllanthaceae, Moraceae, Rutaceae, etc. Conventionally, tribal and rural people often rely on wild
edible fruits for their food, which could provide primary dietary constituents and natural bioactive compounds.
In this study, we have precisely recorded the medicinal importance, nutritional constituents, occurrence, and the
biological activities of wild edible fruits prevalent to Western Ghat.