Subjects: Biology >> Botany >> Applied botany submitted time 2021-12-19 Cooperative journals: 《广西植物》
Abstract： Angiopteris esculenta is one of the most important wild substitutes for staple food in Dulong’s communities (the least populated ethnic group in Yunnan Province, China) for centuries. For a long time, the Dulong people collect the underground parts of A. esculenta to extract flour and make into food. In order to study and record the traditional knowledge of Angiopteris esculenta, and reveal the scientific basis of this plant consumed by Dulong people, ethnobotanical methods were employed to investigate and document the traditional knowledge about A. esculenta. Approaches of food science were used to reveal the basic components, appearance, physical and chemical properties, and gelatinization characteristics of A. esculenta flour in the present paper. The results were as follows: (1) A. esculenta is a multipurposed plant in the traditional livelihood of Dulong people. Local people employed this plant for edible purpose, medicinal purpose, ornamental purpose and woody purpose. Quantitative analysis showed that the relative frequency of citation (RFC) of the edibleness was much higher than that of other uses, which shows its main way as staple food. (2) The traditional uses of fern flour extracted from the underground part of A. esculenta imply rationalities. There is high starch content in the flour, and the total starch content is 86.2%. A. esculenta flour contains various mineral elements necessary for human body. (3) The flour has good physical and chemical properties, specifically, the retrogradation and freeze-thaw stability are strong, which can be used in the production and process of frozen food and starch products. The regeneration value and attenuation value of starch were much lower than that of common starch, which indicated that it had good stability of hot paste and cold paste, and not easy to regenerate, thus imply the good processability in food industry. The research results of the physical and chemical properties provide a theoretical basis for the subsequent processing and utilization of A. esculenta. In conclusion, A. esculenta flour has a good potential for utilization and further development. It is expected to play a positive role for increasing local residents’ income and for rural revitalization in remote areas, through the approaches of artificial cultivation.
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