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Information on plant foods in eBASIS: what is in a correct botanical scientific name?

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 64, pages S108–S111 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

This paper presents the plant information included in the eBASIS (BioActive Substances in Foods Information System) database on composition and biological activity of selected bioactive compounds from European plant/mushroom foods with putative beneficial and/or toxic effects. The European Food Information Resource (EuroFIR)-NETTOX Plant List (2007) presents scientific and vernacular names in 15 European languages for around 325 major European plant/mushroom foods and also for different parts of these foods. This list and its predecessor, the NETTOX List of Food Plants, have been used by national food authorities and within the European Union for consideration of plants and mushrooms that have been used to a significant degree up to 1997 and are therefore not covered by the novel food regulation (European Parliament and Council of the European Union, 1997). The species and the plant part studied are insufficiently characterised in many scientific papers. This paper informs about the naming of plants and mushrooms as an aid for scientists who are not botanists or mycologists themselves. Knowledge on scientific names used, including synonyms, may also be important for finding all relevant papers when searching the literature. In many cases, vernacular/trivial names in, for example, English do not uniquely identify the species. Finally, recommendations are given to assist researchers and reviewers of papers dealing with botanical/mycological information.

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Acknowledgements

The work was completed on behalf of the EuroFIR Consortium and funded under the EU FP6 ‘Food Quality and Food Safety Programme’ (contract No. FP6-513944). The merging of the EuroFIR-BASIS and the NORTOX-BASIS databases into eBASIS and further development of the database was funded by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) under the contract CT/EFSA/EMRISK/2008/01: delivery of a database on bioactive constituents of food plants.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Toxicology and Risk Assessment, National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Søborg, Denmark

    K Pilegaard, F D Eriksen & J Gry

  2. Department of Agriculture and Ecology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    M Soerensen

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  1. K Pilegaard
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  2. F D Eriksen
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  3. M Soerensen
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  4. J Gry
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Correspondence to K Pilegaard.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Contributors: All authors were members of the Plant List Group and contributed to this paper. KP wrote the first draft. FDE, MS and JG critically appraised the paper.

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Pilegaard, K., Eriksen, F., Soerensen, M. et al. Information on plant foods in eBASIS: what is in a correct botanical scientific name?. Eur J Clin Nutr 64 (Suppl 3), S108–S111 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2010.220

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