Regresar

BIBLIOMETRIC REVIEW, PROXIMAL COMPOSITION, AND GASTRONOMIC PROPOSALS OF THE TASTY WEED Portulaca oleracea L., THE RICHEST PLANT IN OMEGA 3 FATTY ACID KNOWN AS PURSLANE OR VERDOLAGA

Abstract:

Purslane is called 'Verdolaga' in Venezuela and 'Beldroega' in Brazil. It is a frequent weed of the Portulacaceae family in backyards but not widely used as Mexican quelites are. We propose to integrate it in the Venezuelan scrambled eggs known as 'perico', arepa, lentils, pasta, pickles, rice, battered, salad, juice, fish, soup, and strawberries. The nutritional facts of P. oleracea plants from Merida were quantified in leafs, fruits, and stems (thin, medium, large), comparing their ash, moisture, protein, ether extract, and carbohydrate contents by proximate analysis. The Scopus database was used for the first bibliometric study on most productive countries, affiliations and authors in the last decade (2011-2021), where 1177 documents were retrieved from journals in English for portulaca oleracea OR purslane, 975 articles and 77 reviews. China, Iran, and India were the most productive countries with more than 100 documents each. The most prolific institutions, authors, and journals were tabulated for this weed of increasing scientific interest, easily available in the tropics, with potential health and social benefits. Bibliometrix was used to per-form graphics on the most cited documents, trending topics of re-search, the multivariate analysis for the conceptual map, and the topic dendrogram which classified keywords in a weed control cluster plus three clusters on medicine, chemistry and bioactivity, and bioassays. A further gastronomic investigation was done with P. oleracea added fresh, dried or cooked, whole, leaves or stems in 12 Italo-Venezuelan recipes. Their acceptance was determined using a 7-point Likert scale with a panel of 24 assessors, with inclusions in ceviche and risotto rating the maximum acceptance of 7 mean liking score. This hybrid contribution on bibliometrics and food science is an evidence to advocate P. oleracea applica-tion in food science and technology by policy makers.