Ethnobotanical Study and the Nutritional Values of Selected Auxiliary Vegetables in Indonesia

Abstract

Encouraging sustainable agriculture is very important to guarantee the sustainability of adequate food supply for everybody as well as to minimize environmental disruption. Indonesia has many auxiliary plants, which are beneficial to improve environmental condition, that it may increase the yield of the main crops. Many of the auxiliary plants are edible and could be consumed as vegetables as well. Unfortunately, many of the auxiliary vegetables are approaching extinction since they are incorrectly considered as useless plants or even weed. In order to conserve the auxiliary vegetables, the ethnobotanical aspects, availability, and basic nutrient information of some auxiliary vegetables in Indonesia were studied.