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CIHEAM - Options Mediterraneennes

CURRENT KNOWLEDGE ON THE WILD FOOD AND NON-FOOD PLANTS QF TURKEY K.Hiisnii Can BaSer Medicinal and Aromatic Plant and Drug, Research Centre (TBAM), Anadolu University, Yunus Emre Kampusu,

TURKEY

ABSTKACT The flora of Turkey contains over 10 O00 vascular plant taxa, a considerable number of which are used by humans. Non-food useso f plants include medicinal, aromatic, ornamental, pesticidal etc.as well as raw materials for making household goods, toys, musical instruments. This paper contains information on the uses of wild plants in Turkey for food and non-food purposes based on current knowledge. KEY-WORDS TURKEY, WILD PLANTS, EUIRA, ïNDïGENOUS KNOWLEDGE, USE MOTS-CLES

TURQUIE, PLANTE SAUVAGE, FLORE,CONNAISSANCE INDIGENE, UTILISATION

Turkey, lying between ca.42"N and 36"N latitudes, is the only country in the world having three different climtes, namely, hleditemnezn, contigental and oceanic. The lmd arez covers 780 600 sq.km., over half of whichis under Mediterranean influence(Akmanand Ketenonlu 1986). The land massof Turkeyliesbetween the sea level andover 5500 m inaltitude.Havingland ontwo continents Turkeyis a natural passageway between Europe and Asia. All these factors must have contributedto the evolution of a rich and diverse flora and fauna in Turkey. The flora of Turkey is well documented in the 10-volume work of late Prof. P.H. Davisof this monumentalworkandseveralsubsequent theUniversity of Edinburgh.Accordingto publications until the end of 1993, the flora of Turkey contains over 10 423 infrageneric taxa, of are included, the numberof taxa occurring which 34.2% are endemic. If the alien and cultivated taxa in Turkey rises to 10 660. 163 families are represented in the flora. 15 out of the 1151 genera are endemicinTurkey. The rate of endemismamong the 8709species is 32%. Thepercentage endemism at the subspecies level rises to 99.4%.Among the varieties and hybrids, endemism rates arearound37and 54%, respectively.Thesenumbersrepresentthemembers of Pteridophytes, gymnosperms, dicotyledons and monocotyledons that have so far been discovered (Table l) @avis et al. 1988, Özhatay et al, 1994). The flora of Turkey thus contains over 3500 endemic taxa which is quite a high rate. The country in Europe that has the highest level of endemism is Greece, with around 800 endemic species.

In the flora of Turkey, percentage endemism is high in some families (Table 2). Some examples are: Boraginaceae (61%), Carnpanulaceae (60%), Scrophulariaceae (52%), Rubiaceae (4% Caryophyllaceae (46%), Labiatae (45%), Leguminosae (40%), Compositue (37%). At generic level,

CIHEAM - Options Mediterraneennes

examples of the rate of endemismare: Bolanthus (ca.go%), Ebenus (go%), Alkanna @l%), Sideritis (78%), Acantholìmon (76%), Paronychia (75%), Verbascum and Gypsophila (71%), Paracaryum (70%),Cousìnia (68%), Centaurea (65%),Astragalus (63%)(Ekim 1987).

USEPUL PLANTS WILD FOOD k 4 N T S

Information on the wild food plants of Turkey is very scarce. Although traditionally wild plants areusedinTurkey for food, a comprehensivelist of suchplantshasnotbeenavailableuntil recently. Earliest informationof plants used as vegetable in Anatolia can be found in the famous ‘Materia Medica’of Dioscorides who was born and lived in Anatolia in the 1st century A.D. as a medical doctor in theWoman army.

Ln 1974, E~clynK A p s compiled itlformgtionmd recipes on 90 wild food plants ina book titled ‘Food Fromthe Fields - Edible Wild Plantsof Aegean Turkey(KalGas 1974). Prof. Turhan Baytop reported on the wild food and non-food plants of Turkey based on actual information in his recent book titled‘A Dictionary of Vernacular Names of Wild Plants of Turkey’ which is illustrated with500 colour picturesof plants (Baytop 1994). Seasonal vegetables and fruits derived from wild plantsare sold in markets or by street vendors in cities and towns in hatolia. In villages, peasants collect wild plants for their personal or home consumption, and any surplus findsits way to city markets, There is no well estsblished áistri5ntion chameí for wild feod plants in Turkey. Howwer, for ename2tal Flam or cut flowers, medicinal and aromatic plants distritwtion channels exist :o some extent. Wild r~ushroorrsare among the most widely used wild food plants in Fdrkey. Although the fully documented, a recentestimate puts the number of fungalflora of Turkeyhasnotbeen mushroom species at5000 with at least ca.2000 being edible (Baytop 1994, Öder 1990). Wildfoodplants are generallysoldbyladies.Therefore,suchmarkets are called‘Ladies Markets’ in Anatolia. Wild food plants are consumed inthe following manners: Eaten raw. The majority of wild plants are eaten raw. They are mainly collected from young plants. Some examples include stalks of Rheum ribes (Rhubarb) or Rumex alpinzts (Monk‘s of several Rhubarb), Rumex acetosella or Rumexchalepensis (Sorrel),peeledstems as Gundelia tournefortiì, Scorzonera and Tragopogon spp., Composilaeplantssuch Geranium tuberosumand Crocus tubers, wild fruits,Portulaca oleracea leaves, AElium spp., Asparagus acutifolius,etci Consumed after cooking. Such plantsare either boiled in water or cooked with oil and eggs. Someexamples are: Portulacaoleracea,Trachystemonorientale,Boragoofficinalis, Atriplex nitens, Beta trigyna, Smilax excelsa and Smilax aspera, several Chenopodium spp., Sium sisarumvar. lancifolium, etc. Dried before use. Tea, spice and condiment plants are generally used &er drying. Some examplesinclude: Thymus, Origanum, Salvia,Sideritis, Satureja, Laurus, Corìdothymus, Thymbra, Echinophora,Hìppomarathum. Consumedafterprocessing.Someplantsrequiresomeprocessingbeforeeaten,suchas boiling to kill enzymes (e.g. in Salep) or to destroy poisonous chemicals (e.g. in Lathyrus seeds, Arum leaves), or pickled (e.g. flower budsof Capparis spinosa and C. ovata). Some aromatic and flavouring plants, such as Allìum spp., Ferda rigidula, etc. are added to a

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make a special type of cheese called ‘Otlu Peynir’ in the Van region. Some plants or plant latexes are added to goat’s milk tomake a specialyogurtcalled‘Teleme’.Suchplants include unripe fruits or the latex of figs (Ficus carica),Iris unguicularis, etc.. Fresh petalsof Rosa dumascenu and fruit pulp (hips) of Rosa canina are used in jam-making. Seed coat (arils) of Srnilux aspera and S. excelsa are mixed with mastic gum (from Pistaciu lentiscus var. chia) to soften it.

A provisional list of wild food and non-food plants of Turkey is given in Annexe 6. WILD MEDICINAL PLANTS

A large literature exists on the plants of Turkey used as medicine, since traditional medicine in Anatolia takes its roots from centuries old tradition dating back from the Hittites or even earlier. A number of reliable books provide information on medicinal plants in current use in Turkey. The most authoritative books were written by Prof.Turhan Baytop,a retired professorof Pharmacognosy at Istznbul University( Baytop 1963, 1984). Resultsof our field work concerning herbalists (Aktars) were published by the author jointly with a couple of Japanese researchers in a book printed in Japan (BaSer et al. 1986)). Field research conducted by a Turkish-Japanese group concerning the so far produced two books and several research articles use of medicinal plants in villages has et al. 1993; (Tabata et al. 1988; Sezik et a1.1991; Sezik et al. 1992; Tabata et al. 1994; Ye-ilada Ye-ilada et al. 1995; Fujita et al. 1995. A list of plants used as medicine during the reign of the Hittite empire is annexed as reference (Baytop 1994) (Annexel).

l

Information on poisonous plantsof Turkey is also available (Baytop 1963; Baytop et al. 1986). A list of poisonous plants is annexed (Annexe 2).

I

ARoMATIcPLms Turkey is rich in aromatic plants. It is estimated that a third of the flora of Turkey consists of aromatic plants. Aromatic, here,is used meaning fiagrmt, flavouring or containing essential oil. An indicative list is given as Annexe 3. Tie Medicinal a d Aromatic Plant and Drug Research C m r e (TBAM) in Eski-ehir has been screening the aromatic floraof Turkey for new sourcesof essent~al oils forthe last ten years.A vast volumeof infomtiorn has been published.Parts of the earlierwork have been reviewed (Baser 1992, 1993, 1994).

The main geophytes that are collected from the wild or cultivatedin situ for export are given in the annexed list (Annex 4) (Ekim et al. 1991). The ‘Red Data Book’ of Turkey published in 1989 includes mainly the geophytes (Ekim et al. 1989). An important book on the bulbous plants of Turkey was published in1934 (Baytop and Mathewí984).

l

I

DYEPLANTS

Dyeing carpets, kilims, garments, and other materials such as easter eggs with wild dye plants has been practiced in Anatolia for 6000 years. Recent research has made it possible to identify the origin of most natural dyes used in dyeing such materials, as well as traditional dyeing techniques. Dyeing with wild plantsis still practiced in severalparts of Turkey, and such carpets and kilims are highly regarded@nez 1987). A provisional listof dye plantsis given in Annexe5.

OTHERUSEFUL PLANTS Severalotherwildplantsareusedforvariouspurposessuchasinsecticides,rodenticides, molluscicides, detergents, or in making musical instruments, furniture, boxes or chests, cigarette holder, beads, necklaces, etc. Examples of such uses are given in the attached comprehensive list.

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CONCLUSION

I consider the establishmentof a network on wild food and non-food plants of the Mediterranean region as a very useful initiative, since such a title covers all useful and hazardous wild plants. It will be useful if all the available dataare compiled in a database accessible through the Internet. TBAh4 hascreatedtwodatabasesontheplants of Turkey.Thefactualdatabase FLOTURK contains information on synonyms, distribution, flower colour, altitude, habitat, etc:on each taxon recorded in the flora of Turkey. Pharmacological, chemical, trade, etc. data will be also be incorporated in FLOTkTRK is partlyaccessablethroughinternet (http://www.anadolu.edu.tr). A duecourse. bibliographicdatabasehas also beencreated,containingkey-wordedinformationonpublished articles concerningthe plants of Turkey. All the documents mentionedin this database are available in our archives. Furthermore, Turkey is represented in a network called A P I N " - the AsianPacificInformationNetworkonMedicinalandAromaticPlants.Theheadquarters of this UNESCO-sponsored network is in the Philippines. Our research centre is the national point of contact for this network in Turkey and relevant data are continuously fed into this database from each member country. It is not yet, however, accessible through the Internet. APINMAP data are incorporated in a CD-ROM series. Home page of TBAM is under constnxtion on the Internet and may be found at the following address (http://www.anadolu.edu.tr/anadolu/tbam/index.html).Electronic mail may be addressed to TBAM [email protected]

TABLE2. ENDEMISM (SOME EXAMPLES FROM THE -RA

Labiatae Leguminosae Compositae

OF TURKEY) (EK.IM 1987)

Paronychia Verbascum and Gypsophila

45 40 37

Cousinia ~

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Centaurea Astragalus

75 71 70 68 65 63

CIHEAM - Options Mediterraneennes

REFERENCES

AKMAN,Y.and ETENOGLU, O. 1986.The ClimateandVegetationofTurkey. In: Hedge,I.C.(Ed.), Proceedingsof the Royal Society ofEdinburgh89B, 123-134. DAVIS, P.H., MILL, R.R.and KIT TAN (Eds), 1988. Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands. Vol.10 (suppl.), University Press, Edinburgh. ÖZHATAY N., KÜLTÜR S . and AKSOY N. 1994. Check-list of Additional Taxa to the Supplement Flora of Turkey. Tr.J.Botany 18: 497-514. EKIM, T. Plants. 1987 In: Biological Diversity in Turkey, Environmental Problems. Foundation of Turkey, Ankara. - Edible Wild Plantsof Turkey. Izmir. KALÇAS, E.L. 1974.Foodsfrom the Fields BAYTOP, T. 1994. Dictionary of Vernacular Names of Wild Plants of Turkey. Turkish Language Association, Publ.No. 578, Ankara. of Turkey. Panel: Biological Diversityin Turkey, ÖDER, N. 1990. Important Edible and Poisonous Mushrooms 26 October 1990, Ankara. BAYTOP, T. 1963. Medicinal and Poisonous Plants of Turkey. Istanbul University Publ.No. 1039, Istanbul. BAYTOP, T.1984. Therapy with Plants in Turkey.Istanbul University Publ.No. 2355, Istanbul. Ba-er, K.H.C., Honda,G.and Miki, W. 1986. E d D n g s m d Eeerbalists in Twhy. Studia Culturae Islamicae27, hstitute for the Study of Languages andcultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo. TABATA, M., HONDA,G. and SEZIK, E. 1988. Traditional Medicine and MedicinalPlants in Turkey. Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyoto University, Kyoto.

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KI. Folk Medicine in EastAnatolia,Vanand Bitlis Provinces. Traditional Medicine in Turkey. 1nt.J.Pharmacognosy 323-12 (1594). YESLADA, E., HONDA, G., SEí%