An ethnobotanical study on medicinal food plants used by the Kazakh people in Altay, Xinjiang, China

Kazakh MFPs represent a culturally integrated "medicine-food continuum" intricately adapted to local ecological conditions. Sustainable utilization requires the incorporation of traditional knowledge-such as phenology-informed harvesting practices-into conservation strategies, the promotion of community-led cultivation of vulnerable species, and the documentation of associated cultural practices. Given accelerating environmental and sociocultural shifts, urgent efforts are needed to preserve this fragile biocultural heritage.