1. INTRODUCTION Human Need Balanced Amount of Nutrients in Their Diets, for Proper Functioning of the Body and to Lead a Healthy Life
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1. INTRODUCTION Human need balanced amount of nutrients in their diets, for proper functioning of the body and to lead a healthy life. In most developing countries, the food situation is worsening owing to increase population, shortage of fertile land, drought, high price of available staples and restriction on import of Food (Roy K.S. 2001). According to food and agriculture organization (FAO) food security exists, when all people always have physical and economic access to the sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their daily need and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Food security has three components viz. availability, access and absorption (nutrition). Ensuring Food security is an issue of great importance for a country like India. Where more than one third of the population is estimated to be absolutely poor and one half of all children malnourished in one way or another. India has rich diversity of fauna and abundant knowledge for using wild plants as a source of nutrition. Tribal people living in and near forest Known about numerous plants to be used as food. Wild edible plants or fruits provide nutrition for these forest dwellers and many of the rural community, since the common cultivar fruits are less familiar and not reachable for them. To the contrary the wild edible fruits and vegetable, which the tribes use, are not familiar to the urban communities. Present study focuses on Neutraceutical analysis of edible plant parts and fruits used by tribal’s of Palghar district. Palghar is newly formed district (2014) of Maharashtra state. It comprises of seven talukas viz. Palghar, Vasai, Talasari, Wada, Mokhada, Jowhar and Vikramghad Fig (1).One of the important source of food for tribals is edible plants and fruits which is very good source of nutrients and vitamins. There are no references available on Neutraceutical analysis of edible plants of Palghar District. Palghar is newly formed district (2014) of Maharashtra state. It comprises of seven talukas viz. Palghar, Vasai, Talasari, Wada, Mokhada, Jowhar and Vikramghad Fig (1). The Palghar district is the north most part of the Konkan lowlands of Maharashtra. It comprises the wide amphitheative like Ulhas basin on the south and Hilly Vaitarna valley on the north, together with plateaus and the slopes of Sahyadri. Shayadhari mountain ranges run through Jawhar, Vikramgad and Mokhada. Mokhada platues is located in North earthen part of the district. There is thick forest in the hilly region of Teak, Sisoom, Ain, Khair, Palas, Pangara, Bamboo, Banyan, Mango and other plants. Vaitarna is the main river flowing through the district. These is the largest of the Konkan Rivers flow across Shahapur, Wada and Palghar talukas and enter the Arabian sea through a wide estuary of Aranala - Vasai. It is 154 km long practically covers the entire northern part of the district. Tansa sanctuary is located in this district. The south east part of the district is mainly urban and close to Mumbai, but the hilly region is extremely rural. The ethnic groups living in this region are warli, Thakur, Katkari, Mahadev Koli, Malhar Koli, Dhodia and Dubla etc. The district is mostly dry and deciduous type due to long dry spell and deciduous nature of the forest tribal’s of this region have find different way and means for getting food. They depend many times on unconventional fruits and vegetables. Ethnic group living in forest are custodian of our plant wealth. Their life style is intricately interwoven with forest; hence they have evolved several knowledge systems in agriculture, food and Nutrition, storage, herbal medicine etc. There is need of sharing of knowledge system between tribes and civilized society so as to make the tribal’s ecosystem function more effectively and sustainably. (Patil H.M., 2007) The present day need is to have information about the new food sources and exploiting the vast number of less known plants resources existing in the nature. Fruits and vegetables are important source of minerals, fibers and vitamins, which provide essential nutrients for the human health. Fruits and other edible parts of plants contain various phytocompounts which play important role in ageing and preventing many chronic diseases. Information available on an edible as well as therapeutically properties of the wild fruits and vegetables is isolated and data on these nutritional compositions are negligible. (Gopalan et al., 1996) New plants require need to be exploited in order to meet the growing need of the human society, which incidentally has developed only on a small fraction of plant wealth. Many of the underutilized plants have a potential improving Indian agriculture is diversified agro-ecological niches, and have great potential for exploitation in view of the value of their economic products for use as food, medicine energy and industrial purpose (Bhagmal and Joshi, 1991). Hence a research project have been designed to investigate wild plants used as a sources of food viz. vegetables, fruits and edible part of plants of this region and their potential for bioprospecting so as to enriching our food basket. Map of Palghar District Fig (1) .