Promising underutilized wild plants of cold desert Ladakh, India for nutritional security and health benefits

Underutilized wild plants are important sources of nutrition and medicine since ancient times and have con-tributed to food security, enriching diet diversity and preventing malnutrition. These plants have been used in ancient Chinese and Indian medicine such as Ayurvedic, Unani and Siddha to treat various ailments. Ladakh, the cold-desert of India, is home to many such wild underutilized plants which have played a crucial role in supple-menting diet to the indigenous people. Phytochemical investigation of these plants have revealed the presence of essential nutrients and bioactive compounds like vitamins, minerals, rutin, quercetin, kaempferol, cappari-sine, caftaric acid, chicoric acid, salidrosides, rosavins, emodin and anthraquinones that are responsible for their pharmacological activities like antioxidant, antidiabetic, hepatoprotective, antinociceptive response, antiageing, antiinflammatory, neuroprotective and cardioprotective. Moreover, fortification of staple food with these plants have ability to improve the micronutrients and bioactive constituents. Identification of these compounds using a metabolomic approach could enable development of safer and affordable novel drugs. These underutilized plants, though having tremendous potential for commercial exploitation, still remain largely ignored. The paper highlights some of the underutilized plants of Ladakh and their potentials as food and nutraceuticals and future commercial exploitation for nutritional security and good health.