Similarities in Brazilian dietary diversity: a literature review of ethnobotanical studies on regional, vegetation, and cultural contexts

Edible flora is one of the most relevant groups for the survival and food security of socioeconomically vulnerable communities in Brazil. We aimed to provide an overview of research advances in the country, record the known edible biodiversity, national consumption patterns across different communities (rural, traditional, and urban), and the geographic and ethnic distribution of the articles, while identifying gaps and possibilities for future studies. To this end, a literature review was conducted in the SciELO, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases for the indexing of ethnobiological research. Following detailed analyses, 163 articles were included in our database. The research was concentrated in the Northeast and North regions, primarily in rural communities. A total of 1,079 botanical species were cited (754 native, 325 exotic), with the most diverse families being Myrtaceae Juss., Arecaceae Bercht. & J. Presl., and Fabaceae Lindl. The chosen predictors (urbanity gradient, phytogeographic domains, and types of traditional communities) could not distinguish the analyzed groups according to their similarity in food diversity, although some detectable statistical differences exist, especially when considering the type of traditional community and native edible species. Gaps in Brazilian local and traditional ecological knowledge regarding species diversity for food security and its cultural relationship, in addition to the low scientific representation of traditional groups, influenced these results. Studies on the internal variability of edible species composition are important as they allow for an understanding of whether the characteristics that differentiate communities, regarding the richness of utilized edible species, are related to ethnic, cultural, and geographical delimitations and which groups overlap these barriers.