An Overview of the Ethnobotanic, Ethnopharmacological and Medicinal Importance of Edible Wild Root Tuber Orchids in Cameroon

Orchids are well known for their beautiful exotic flowers, and food-flavoring products which make them a resource of great economic importance in the global horticultural and food industries. In Cameroon, orchids are particularly important for their tubers which are used for food and traditional medicine. Orchids are therefore of considerable economic importance, traded within and across the regions and out of the country. Few research works have reported for these orchids in Cameroon exploring mostly identification and taxonomy. It is therefore the responsibility and duty of the local population to valorize the tubers for national use based on their awareness of the hidden potentials for food and medicine. Many people will have eaten orchids without realizing, due to the countless products in international trade that contain the seeds of artificially propagated Vanilla orchids. However, this legal trade is only one example of orchids being used as ingredients in food and drink. One example is the trade in chikanda, a cake made from the ground tubers of terrestrial orchids and consumed in several countries in Central and East Africa. Another product made from the ground tubers of terrestrial species is salep, which is used as an ingredient in hot drinks and ice cream and consumed mainly in Turkey and neighboring countries.

The high exploitation with no biodiversity and conservation strategic plan by indigenes is a call for concern about the sustainability as future existence of these wild edible orchids is highly threatened; reason why orchids are on the international red list. This paper reviews the ethnobotanical and medicinal uses of orchid roots and tubers with a focus on Cameroon. The review highlights some of the areas that require more focus in terms of research and policy interventions, namely identification of all edible orchids, domestication of edible orchids, and trade controls. Focusing on Cameroon, this paper reviews and examines the edible root and tuber orchids developments based on information from some of the work that has been done in Cameroon, the ethnobotanic, ethnopharmacological and medicinal uses of these orchids.