Malvaceae spp. leaves as a novel crop for food

Abstract

Local wild plants are often used as a complementary food source for indigenous societies around the globe. However, domestication of such plants as new crops for food is facing serious challenges, so in fact only a handful of new crops were domesticated for commercial use in the last decades. Several Malva and Lavatera species (Family: Malvaceae) are ruderal, nitrophilic plants that very commonly dominate vegetation of field margins in Mediterranean agroecosystems. In Israel, those Malvaceae species - mainly M. nicaeensis All. and L. cretica L. - are commonly called “Hubeza” (Arabic: bread). Hubeza have an important role in the local cuisine. Traditionally, people are harvesting and eating the green leaves fresh, boiled or fried. The goal of this project is to test the potential of M. nicaeensis and L.cretica as a potential crop for human food. We hypothesize that the nutritional values of the Hubeza leaves, as well as biomass production, is competitive to spinach, as well as other green leaves which are available commercially, and used in similar fashion. To test our hypothesis we compared here nutritional values of wild Hubeza leaves to the nutritional values of other green leaves crops, in terms of, total N, P, K, Fe, Cu, and Na. We found that leaves of wild Malvaceae exhibited similar concentrations of nutrients as compared to commercial green leaves, cultivated in the field. Subsequently, we will examine agronomic aspects of M. nicaeensis and L.cretica cultivation, as well as additional nutritional aspects. The use of native plants for agriculture can increase biodiversity of agroecosystems, promote diversification of agriculture, and reduce agricultural inputs. The value of native plants, local production, and maintenance of agroecosystem biodiversity can reduce food millage, promote food diversity and agricultural resilience.

Keywords

• green leaves,Malva,Lavatera,nutritional value,traditional food,novel crop

References

1. Allen, P., Van Dusen, D., Lundy, J., and Gliessman, S. (1991). Integrating social, environmental, and economic issues in sustainable agriculture. American Journal of Alternative Agriculture, 34–39.
2. Bar-Tal, A., Yermiyahu, U., Beraud, J., Keinan, M., Rosenberg, R., Zohar, D., Rosen, V., and Fine, P. (2004). Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium uptake by wheat and their distribution in soil following successive, annual compost applications. Journal of Environmental Quality 33, 1855-1865.
3. Barazani, O., Mayzlish-Gati, E., Lifshitz, D., Hadas, R., Keren-Keiserman, A., Golan, S., Faraj, T., Singer, A., Beerman, A., and Perevolotsky, A. (2017). Strategies and priorities in field collections for ex situ conservation: the case of the Israel Plant Gene Bank. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 64, 1-5.
4. Barazani, O., Perevolotsky, A., and Hadas, R. (2008). A problem of the rich: Prioritizing local plant genetic resources for ex situ conservation in Israel. Biological Conservation 141, 596-600.
5. Barros, L., Carvalho, A.M., and Ferreira, I.C.F.R. (2010). Leaves, flowers, immature fruits and leafy flowered stems of Malva sylvestris: A comparative study of the nutraceutical potential and composition. Food and Chemical Toxicology 48, 1466-1472.
6. Bouriche, H., Meziti, H., Senator, A., and Arnhold, J. (2011). Anti-inflammatory, free radical-scavenging, and metal-chelating activities of Malva parviflora. Pharmaceutical Biology 49, 942-946.
7. Dafni, A. (1985). Edible plants of the land of Israel. Tel-Aviv (Hebrew): The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel.
8. Guarrera, P.M. (2003). Food medicine and minor nourishment in the folk traditions of Central Italy (Marche, Abruzzo and Latium). Fitoterapia 74, 515-544.

9. Gupta, A.K. (2004). Origin of agriculture and domestication of plants and animals linked to early Holocene climate amelioration. Current Science 87, 54-59.
10. Hanningtonkiff, J.G. (1984). Poisonous Plants in Britain - and Their Effects on Animals and Man - Cooper,Mr, Johnson,Aw. Lancet 2, 556-556.
11. Krispil, N. (1983–1989). Bag of plants (Hebrew). Jerusalem: Yerid Hasefarim.Mariotti, F., Tome, D., and Mirand, P.P. (2008). Converting nitrogen into Protein - Beyond 6.25 and Jones' factors. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition 48, 177-184.
12. Mayer-Chissick, U., and Lev, E. (2014). " Wild edible plants in Israel tradition versus cultivation. ," in Medicinal and Aromatic Plants of the Middle-East, eds. Z. Yaniv & N. Dudai. (Dordrecht: Springer), 9-26.
13. Neves, J.M., Matos, C., Moutinho, C., Queiroz, G., and Gomes, L.R. (2009). Ethnopharmacological notes about ancient uses of medicinal plants in Tras-os-
14. Montes (northern of Portugal). Journal of Ethnopharmacology 124, 270-283.
15. Ozcan, T. (2006). Total protein and amino acid compositions in the acorns of Turkish Quercus L. taxa. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 53, 419-429.
16. Sethi, S. (2015). Bread, Wine, Chocolate: The Slow Loss of Foods We Love. New York: HarperCollins.
17. Shelef, O., Fernández-Bayo, J. D., Sher, Y., Ancona, V., Slinn, H., & Achmon, Y. (2018). "Elucidating Local Food Production to Identify the Principles and Challenges of Sustainable Agriculture," in Sustainable Food Systems from Agriculture to Industry ed. C.M. Galanakis. 1st ed (London, United Kingdom: Elsevier Inc.), 47-81.
18. Shelef, O., Weisberg, P.J., and Provenza, F.D. (2017). The Value of Native Plants and Local Production in an Era of Global Agriculture. Frontiers in Plant Science 8.
19. Team, R.C. (2019). R: A language and environment for statistical computing.
20. Vermunt, J., and Visser, R. (1987). Nitrate Toxicity in Cattle. New Zealand Veterinary Journal 35, 136-137.
21. Zarcinas, B.A., Cartwright, B., and Spouncer, L.R. (1987). Nitric-Acid Digestion and Multielement Analysis of Plant-Material by Inductively Coupled Plasma Spectrometry. Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis 18, 131-146.