Local Food Plants of Brazil

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

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2. Basics on Food Plants and Biodiversity

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Biodiversity Towards Sustainable Food Systems: Four Arguments

      • Michelle Cristine Medeiros Jacob, Viviany Moura Chaves, Cecília Rocha

      Pages 3-18

   3. Biodiversity, Ethno-diversity and Food Cultures: Towards More Sustainable Food Systems and Diet

      • Jean Pierre Poulain

      Pages 19-28

   4. Unconventional Food Plants: Food or Medicine?

      • Washington Soares Ferreira Júnior, Letícia Zenóbia de Oliveira Campos, Patrícia Muniz de Medeiros

      Pages 29-47

3. Brazilian Food Plants: An Overview

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 49-49

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   2. Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition: Promoting Brazilian Underutilized Edible Plants into Food and Nutrition Security National Policies

      • Daniela Moura de Oliveira Beltrame, Camila Neves Soares Oliveira, Lidio Coradin

      Pages 51-64

   3. Bioactive Potential of Brazilian Plants Used as Food with Emphasis on Leaves and Roots

      • Fernanda L. B. Mügge, Sarah M. S. Prates, Juliana de Paula-Souza, Maria G. L. Brandão

      Pages 65-87

   4. Natural Toxins in Brazilian Unconventional Food Plants: Uses and Safety

      • Fillipe de Oliveira Pereira, Francinalva Dantas de Medeiros, Patrícia Lima Araújo

      Pages 89-114

4. Ethnobotanical Knowledge of Brazilian Food Plants

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 115-115

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   2. Brazilian Food Plants Registered in Historical Documents

      • Maria Franco Trindade Medeiros

      Pages 117-125

   3. Archaeobotany of Brazilian Indigenous Peoples and Their Food Plants

      • Mariana Franco Cassino, Myrtle P. Shock, Laura Pereira Furquim, Daniela Dias Ortega, Juliana Salles Machado, Marco Madella et al.

      Pages 127-159

   4. Famine Foods: Thoughts from a Caatinga Research Experience

      • Viviany Teixeira do Nascimento, Letícia Zenóbia de Oliveira Campos

      Pages 161-176

5. Food Composition Data on Brazilian Edible Plants by Biome

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 177-177

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   2. Food Composition Data: Edible Plants in Cerrado

      • Elisa Flávia Luiz Cardoso Bailão, Matheus Gabriel de Oliveira, Luciane Madureira de Almeida, Vanessa Cristiane Santana Amaral, Lee Chen Chen, Samantha Salomão Caramori et al.

      Pages 179-224

   3. Food Plants in the Caatinga

      • Daline Fernandes de Souza Araújo, Maria Elieidy Gomes de Oliveira, Paloma Oliveira Antonino Assis de Carvalho, Emanuella de Aragão Tavares, Gerlane Coelho Bernardo Guerra, Rita de Cássia Ramos do Egypto Queiroga et al.

      Pages 225-250

   4. Food Composition Data: Edible Plants in the Pampa

      • Adriana Carla Dias Trevisan, Vanuska Lima da Silva, Josué Schneider Martins, Gabriela Coelho-de-Souza, Stefany Areva Severo, Mariana Oliveira Ramos

      Pages 251-270

   5. Food Composition Data: Edible Plants from the Amazon

      • Bernardo Tomchinsky, Gabriela G. Gonçalves, Almecina B. Ferreira

      Pages 271-295

   6. Food Composition Data: Edible Plants in Pantanal

      • Ieda Maria Bortolotto, Rita de Cássia Avellaneda Guimarães, Raquel Pires Campos, Mariana Rodrigues da Silva Lopes, Laleska Pâmela Rodrigues da Silva, Rosa Helena Silva et al.

      Pages 297-324

6. Consumption of Brazilian Food Plants

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 325-325

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There has been growing academic interest in local food plants. This is a subject that lies at the frontiers of knowledge of various areas, such as environmental sciences, nutrition, public health, and humanities. To date, however, we do not have a book bringing these multi-disciplinary perspectives to bear on this complex field. 

This book presents the current state of knowledge on local Brazilian food plants through a multidisciplinary approach, including an overview of food plants in Brazil, as well as comprehensive nutritional data. It compiles basic theories on the interrelationship between biodiversity and food and nutrition security, as well as ethnobotanical knowledge of local Brazilian food plants. Additionally, this title provides various methods of learning and teaching the subject, including through social media, artificial intelligence, and through workshops, among others.

• Biodiversity
• Ethnobotany
• Food and Nutrition Security
• Sustainable Diets
• Economic Botany
• Ethnobiology

• Department of Nutrition, Laboratório Horta Comunitária Nutrir, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Brazil

  Michelle Cristine Medeiros Jacob

• Department of Botany, Laboratório de Ecologia e Evolução de Sistemas Socioecológicos, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil

  Ulysses Paulino Albuquerque

Prof. Ulysses Paulino Albuquerque received his Ph.D. in biology in 2001 from the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Brazil. He is Full Professor of the Department of Botany at Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Pernambuco, Brazil. In 2011, he led the founding of new Ph.D. program in Ethnobiology and Nature Conservation. Albuquerque has published around 316 journal articles, 200 chapter’s book and edited or authored 50 books (including new editions and translations).  Albuquerque has served as editor of various peer-reviewed journals, and in 2011 co-founded the journal Ethnobiology and Conservation as Co-Editor-in-Chief.


Prof. Michelle Jacob is a professor in the Nutrition Department and the postgraduate program of Social Sciences at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte. She is the founder of LabNutrir (www.nutrir.com.vc), a community garden laboratory in an undergraduate nutrition program that brings together local plants and people. The United Nations in 2018 recognized the LabNutrir as a reference in the application of the Right to Food Guidelines, especially guideline 11, i.e., education and awareness-raising. Dr. Jacob's research interests relate to food and nutrition security, sustainable diets, ethnonutrition, and food systems.

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