NUTRITIONAL COMPOSITION OF SOME WILD EDIBLE PLANTS OF DISTRICT KECH, BALOCHISTAN, PAKISTAN

In this era of famine and food insecurity wild edible plants may serve as an important source of nutrition and health for mankind. Thus, present study aimed to identify and explore nutritional value of some wild edible plants collected from District Kech of Balochistan. Three wild edible plants, Rumex crispus L, Launaea capitata (spreng) Dandy and Portulaca oleracea L. were collected from different sites for nutritional analysis. Proximate (dry matter, ash, moisture content, organic matter content, crude protein content, crude fat content, and carbohydrate) and elemental composition including macro (Mg, Ca, P, S) and micro (B, Fe, Mn, Zn, Ni, Cr) elements were determined by ICP-OES method. Overall findings depicted that all three wild edible plants can serve as a good source of nutrition i.e; L. capitata is rich in crude protein, crude fiber, dry matter whereas serve as a best source of certain elements such as Cr, Ni, S and Zn. Similarly, R. crispus may serve to provide moisture and crude fat along other elements such as B, Ca, Fe, Mg, Mn and P whereas; P. oleracea is found to have relatively good concentrations of carbohydrates and organic matter. Furthermore; proximate analysis indicated a significant difference (P≤0.05) in mean values of moisture content, crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber, dry matter, organic matter and total carbohydrate concentrations of all plant samples. Elemental composition encountered presence of 10 elements in varying concentrations in wild edible plant samples. Elemental composition also highlighted a significant difference (P≤0.05) in mean value of iron, magnesium, calcium, sulfur while boron, zinc, nickel, chromium, phosphorus, manganese was not significantly different in all plant samples. Inclusive results showed that each of the selected wild edible plants has potential to meet nutritional deficiency as each sample has varying amount of different proximate and elemental composition of selected wild edible plants. Furthermore, protection and cultivation of these important wild edible plants must be practiced to ensure their sustainable conservation.