Elemental concentration and spatial distribution of wild edible fruits and implications for dietary mineral intake in Ethiopia.

ABSTRACT: Ethiopia faces challenges of food insecurity, malnutrition, and biodiversity loss. The predominantly rural population relies on staple cereals, leading to deficiencies in essential micronutrients. Ethiopia's Eastern Afromontane biodiversity hotspot hosts a variety of wild edible fruits (WEFs) that could help alleviate these deficiencies. However, WEFs are stigmatised as "food-for-the-poor" and remain underutilised partly due to limited data on their nutritional value. This study is the first to systematically assess the elemental composition of 23 wild and four cultivated fruit species from Oromia and Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples (SNNP) regions of Ethiopia. Using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, we found several WEFs to be rich in Ca, Fe, Mg, and Se, often surpas

SUBMITTER: Kumssa DB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12661052 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature