Ethiopia is confronted with the paradox of hosting hundreds of edible plants and having high food and nutritional insecurity. Meals are mainly made up of staples and often lack of protein and micronutrients. Therefore, a large section of the population, particularly children and women, are malnourished. We hypothesize that wild edible plant species can contribute to fulfil the micronutrient demands of local people. Hence, we assessed the nutritional potential of underutilized edible plant species growing in understories of coffee agroforestry systems of southwestern Ethiopia. An ethnobotanical household survey (n = 300) documented the edible existing plants; and a promising subset of them (n = 12) was analysed for nutrient and antinutritional factor content in the lab. All 12 species, except fruits, have higher calcium, iron and zinc contents compared to regularly cultivated crops. Vitamin C was high in Syzygium guineense (330.72 mg/100 g edible parts or EP) and Rubus apetalus (294.19 mg/100 g). Beta-carotene ranged from 9.2 to 75 µg retinol activity equivalent (RAE) /100 g 25 among all species, but was exceptionally high in Rubus apetalus (161.7 µg RAE/100 g). Concerning the antinutritional factors, phytate content varied from 31.06 to 601.65 µg/100 g, being lower in Dioscorea prehensilis (31.06 µg/100 g) and D. alata (90.17 µg/100 g) compared to Carissa spinarum (601.65 µg/100 g) and Solanum nigrum (536.48 µg/100 g). Thus, we conclude that the assessed underutilized species are potential sources of dietary nutrients locally needed, and are notable Amaranthus graecizans, Portulaca oleracea and Dioscorea cayenensis as providers of Ca, Fe and Zn, and the fruit Rubus apetalus of provitamin A.

埃塞俄比亚面临着容纳数百种可食用植物，食物和营养不安全状况高的矛盾。膳食主要由主食组成，通常缺乏蛋白质和微量营养素。因此，很大一部分人口，特别是儿童和妇女营养不良。我们假设野生食用植物物种可以满足当地人对微量营养素的需求。因此，我们评估了在埃塞俄比亚西南部的咖啡农林业系统的底层种植的未充分利用的食用植物物种的营养潜力。一项民族植物学家庭调查（n  = 300）记录了可食用的现有植物；以及其中有前途的子集（n = 12）在实验室中分析了营养成分和抗营养因子的含量。与正常种植的农作物相比，除水果外的所有12种植物均具有较高的钙，铁和锌含量。几内亚Syzygium guineense（330.72 mg / 100 g可食用部分或EP）和Rubus apetalus（294.19 mg / 100 g）中的维生素C含量很高。在所有物种中，β-胡萝卜素的含量范围为9.2至75 µg视黄醇活性当量（RAE）/ 100 g 25，但在悬钩子（Rubus apetalus）中异常高（161.7 µg RAE / 100 g）。关于抗营养因子，植酸含量从31.06变化到601.65微克/ 100克，在是低级薯蓣prehensilis（31.06微克/ 100克）和D.翅相比（90.17微克/ 100克）云南假虎刺（601.65 µg / 100 g）和龙葵（536.48 µg / 100 g）。因此，我们得出的结论是，被评估的利用不足的物种是当地需要的膳食营养的潜在来源，并且值得注意的是A菜，马齿Di和薯Di作为Ca，Fe和Zn的提供者，以及原维生素A的果实悬钩子（Rubus apetalus）。