Short communication Nutrient and fatty acid composition of wild edible bladder campion populations (Silene vulgaris (Moench.) Garcke)

The use of edible wild species Silene vulgaris has been reported by several authors (Launert, 1982; Facciola, 1998). The consumption as a leafy vegetable of bladder campion is present in Turkey, Italy, Austria, Germany and Spain (Laghetti & Perrino, 1994). Several ethnobotanical studies (Rivera & Obon, 1991; Tardio et al., 2002) reveal that bladder campion is very much appreciable in the traditional gastronomy of many Spanish regions. The tender leaves are prepared by cooking, like spinach in vegetable pies or used raw in salads. Edible wild plants are rich sources of essential fatty acids such as a-linolenic acid (18:3x-3) and linoleic acid (18:2x-6) (Simopoulos, 1988; Glew et al., 1997; Guil-Guerrero & Rodriguez-Garcia, 1999; Zeghichi et al., 2003) and in addition, provide higher amounts of a-linolenic acid and antioxidant vitamins than cultivated plants (Simopoulos, 2004). In nutritional terms, the presence of x-3 fatty acids are essential for normal growth and development andmay play an important role in the prevention and treatment of coronary artery disease, hypertension, arthritis, other inflammatory and autoimmune disorders and cancer (Hamazaki & Okuyama, 2001). In S. vulgaris, as in many other Caryophyllaceae, hermaphrodite and male sterile plants coexist in the same population (gynodioecy) and plants are alogamous. Thus, a considerable between-population variation has been detected in vegetative habit, phenology, seed morphology, leaf shape, leaf size (Wall & Morrison, 1990; Runyeon & Prentice, 1997, 2000). This work attempts to contribute to the knowledge of the nutritional properties of wild edible Spanish bladder campion, which have not been, as far as we know, documented to date. Considering the possible domestication and the enlargement of their consumption, the present study examines the macronutrient and fatty acid composition of ten S. vulgaris wild populations collected at different sites from Central Spain.