Andrea Pieroni

Global Wild Edibles of Deserts: Food Security and Sustainability provides coverage of topics in food and health in desert rangelands, using an interdisciplinary approach that considers health not only in a functional and human sense, but also in terms of external factors including aridity. The plant diversity in desert ecosystems provide economic service benefits, such as sources of fodder, fuel wood, and traditional medicinal plants. This book documents wild edibles commonly grown in deserts that are hugely beneficial for the herbal industry for the socio-economic uplift of local communities. This book contains multiple field pictorial graphs of desert wild edible plants to help with their identification, and it gives detailed information on food security issues and sustainability measures in the world desert zones. It also focusses on the diversity of wild edibles in deserts across the globe, their nutraceutical importance, production-consumption trends, integration into food menus, and marketing and livelihood opportunities to the indigenous people. A volume in the Exploring Medicinal Plants series, this book creates opportunity for policymakers to develop plans for the successful entry of wild edibles into herbal industries, and attracts farmers owning infertile lands to cultivate wild edibles in desert rangeland. The book is a valuable resource for researchers, conservationists, and policymakers seeking solutions at the intersection of food security and environmental sustainability.

Melissopalynology: Bee Flora, Pollen and Honey presents a comprehensive guide to the floral biology of honeybee plants. Critical for developing optimal management techniques for honey bee habitats, as well as for the growth and sustainability of the honey economy, this information is key to addressing the problem of predicting resource availability. In addition, it enables successful apiarist planning for effective hive placements and capacity, and provides crucial baseline data to direct habitat and biodiversity management. The book is globally relevant, presenting updates on the characteristics, composition, health properties, contamination, authenticity, and adulteration of honey at the worldwide level, regardless of region. The 100+ bee flora and pollen field notes and photographic atlas sections examine species found in multiple regions throughout the world. Honey has become a highly demanded product for consumers worldwide due to its taste and rich nutritional and medicinal value. However, it remains challenging to identify honey’s origin as well as determine its authenticity. This book summarizes the research and practices carried out in the last decade toward discriminating honey by using characteristic markers.

Discover neglected wild food sourcesthat can also be used as medicine! The long-standing notion of food as medicine, medicine as food, can be traced back to Hippocrates. Eating and Healing: Traditional Food As Medicine is a global overview of wild and semi-domesticated foods and their use as medicine in traditional societies. Important cultural information, along with extensive case studies, provides a clear, authoritative look at the many neglected food sources still being used around the world today. This book bridges the scientific disciplines of medicine, food science, human ecology, and environmental sciences with their ethno-scientific counterparts of ethnobotany, ethnoecology, and ethnomedicine to provide a valuable multidisciplinary resource for education and instruction. Eating and Healing: Traditional Food As Medicine presents respected researchers’ in-depth case studies on foods different cultures use as medicines and as remedies for nutritional deficiencies in diet. Comparisons of living conditions in different geographic areas as well as differences in diet and medicines are thoroughly discussed and empirically evaluated to provide scientific evidence of the many uses of these traditional foods as medicine and as functional foods. The case studies focus on the uses of plants, seaweed, mushrooms, and fish within their cultural contexts while showing the dietary and medical importance of these foods. The book provides comprehensive tables, extensive references, useful photographs, and helpful illustrations to provide clear scientific support as well as opportunities for further thought and study. Eating and Healing: Traditional Food As Medicine explores the ethnobiology of: Tibetantioxidants as mediators of high-altitude nutritional physiology Northeast Thailandwild food plant gathering Southern Italythe consumption of wild plants by Albanians and Italians Northern Spainmedicinal digestive beverages United Statesmedicinal herb quality Commonwealth of Dominicahumoral medicine and food Cubapromoting health through medicinal foods Brazilmedicinal uses of specific fishes Brazilplants from the Amazon and Atlantic Forest Bolivian Andestraditional food medicines New Patagoniagathering of wild plant foods with medicinal uses Western Kenyauses of traditional herbs among the Luo people South Cameroonethnomycology in Africa Moroccofood medicine and ethnopharmacology Eating and Healing: Traditional Food As Medicine is an essential research guide and educational text about food and medicine in traditional societies for educators, students from undergraduate through graduate levels, botanists, and research specialists in nutrition and food science, anthropology, agriculture, ethnoecology, ethnobotany, and ethnobiology.

Discover neglected wild food sourcesthat can also be used as medicine! The long-standing notion of food as medicine, medicine as food, can be traced back to Hippocrates. Eating and Healing: Traditional Food As Medicine is a global overview of wild and semi-domesticated foods and their use as medicine in traditional societies. Important cultural information, along with extensive case studies, provides a clear, authoritative look at the many neglected food sources still being used around the world today. This book bridges the scientific disciplines of medicine, food science, human ecology, and environmental sciences with their ethno-scientific counterparts of ethnobotany, ethnoecology, and ethnomedicine to provide a valuable multidisciplinary resource for education and instruction. Eating and Healing: Traditional Food As Medicine presents respected researchers’ in-depth case studies on foods different cultures use as medicines and as remedies for nutritional deficiencies in diet. Comparisons of living conditions in different geographic areas as well as differences in diet and medicines are thoroughly discussed and empirically evaluated to provide scientific evidence of the many uses of these traditional foods as medicine and as functional foods. The case studies focus on the uses of plants, seaweed, mushrooms, and fish within their cultural contexts while showing the dietary and medical importance of these foods. The book provides comprehensive tables, extensive references, useful photographs, and helpful illustrations to provide clear scientific support as well as opportunities for further thought and study. Eating and Healing: Traditional Food As Medicine explores the ethnobiology of: Tibetantioxidants as mediators of high-altitude nutritional physiology Northeast Thailandwild food plant gathering Southern Italythe consumption of wild plants by Albanians and Italians Northern Spainmedicinal digestive beverages United Statesmedicinal herb quality Commonwealth of Dominicahumoral medicine and food Cubapromoting health through medicinal foods Brazilmedicinal uses of specific fishes Brazilplants from the Amazon and Atlantic Forest Bolivian Andestraditional food medicines New Patagoniagathering of wild plant foods with medicinal uses Western Kenyauses of traditional herbs among the Luo people South Cameroonethnomycology in Africa Moroccofood medicine and ethnopharmacology Eating and Healing: Traditional Food As Medicine is an essential research guide and educational text about food and medicine in traditional societies for educators, students from undergraduate through graduate levels, botanists, and research specialists in nutrition and food science, anthropology, agriculture, ethnoecology, ethnobotany, and ethnobiology.