A Narrative Review of Wild and Semiwild Edible Plants in Ethiopia: Agroecological Perspectives, Ethnic Diversity, Proximate Composition, and Phytochemical Analysis.

All over the world, wild edible plants are predominantly the sources of famine food. Ethiopia, with food-insecure populations, needs such food-supplementing plant groups. The current review article is aimed at presenting a compiled list of the species, showing the diversity of the species, and elaborating on their major threats and values. Scientific articles with an ethnobotanical approach that were published from 2004 to 2025 in Ethiopia were gathered. An inclusive review was performed by using a reputable database, Google Scholar. Several phases of screening were conducted. A total of 59 published articles were reviewed. From the published documents, important information was extracted. The gathered data was entered into Microsoft Excel 2010 and analyzed. A total of 665 species (114 families) were recorded. Cordia africana, Syzygium guineense, and Ximenia americana were the three highly mentioned species. Fabaceae was an outlayer family with 63 species. Rubiaceae (31 species) was the second, followed by Malvaceae (28 species). Trees were the dominant species, followed by shrubs, and the preferred edible part was the fruit. There was a record difference across one region to the other, and the southern region was the first in species record (113 species). They were the sources of proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, fibers, vitamin C, and minerals. They were further recorded as nutraceuticals, antioxidants, and income-generating plants. Two major problems were observed: lack of utilising the species as a staple food and low marketability. Nowadays, the species are under several threats. Therefore, significant conservation strategies should be conducted and implemented throughout the country along with promoting their value to the local community.