Available online 15 May 2015
Review
An ethnobotanical perspective on traditional fermented plant foods and beverages in Eastern Europe
Abstract
Ethnopharmacological relevance
Fermented food and beverages represent an important part of the worldwide foodscape,
medicinal food domain and domestic strategies of health care, yet
relevant traditional knowledge in Europe is poorly documented.
Methods
Review
of primary ethnographic literature, archival sources and a few ad-hoc
ethnobotanical field studies in seven selected Eastern European
countries (Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Kosovo, and
Poland) were conducted.
Results
Current
or recently abandoned uses of 116 botanical taxa, belonging to 37
families in fermented food or medicinal food products were recorded.
These findings demonstrate a rich bio-cultural diversity of use, and
also a clear prevalence of the use of fruits of the tannin- and
phenolic-rich Rosaceae species in alcoholic, lactic- and acetic acid
fermented preparations. In the considered countries, fermentation still
plays (or has played until recent years) a crucial role in folk cuisines
and this heritage requires urgent and in-depth evaluation.
Discussion
Future
studies should be aimed at further documenting and also bio-evaluating
the ingredients and processes involved in the preparation of homemade
fermented products, as this can be used to support local,
community-based development efforts to foster food security, food
sovereignty, and small-scale local food-based economies.
Graphical abstract
Keywords
- Ethnobotany;
- Fermented foods;
- Food security;
- Eastern Europe
- Corrseponding author. Tel.:
+39 0172 458575; fax: +39 0172 458500.
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- Present address: The Scracth Series, 2B Jamaica Street, Edinburgh EH6 6HH, UK.
Copyright © 2015 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.
