List of useful plants

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The list of useful plants contains plant species that grow wild or cultivated as food plants , forage plants , plants for technical purposes, etc.

In the following list, the useful plants are broken down according to the ingredients that are important for nutrition, according to their use and their technical use. Their classification is based on Wolfgang Franke's book Nutzpflanzenkunde in the 6th edition from 1997.

The medicinal plants are grouped according to the main active ingredients based on Gessner / Orzechowski (1974).

The most important crops by harvest volume

According to statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), a total of 9.23 billion tons of crops were harvested in 2018. The list contains 166 different crops. Of the 20 most important crops, a total of around 7.48 billion tons were produced.

The world harvests of the five most cultivated crops in 2017 in percent compared to the total amount of all crops
The largest crops harvested worldwide (2018)
rank fruit Quantity
(in t )
rank fruit Quantity
(in t)
1 Sugar cane 1,907,024,730 11 tomatoes 182.256.458
2 Corn 1,147,621,938 12 barley 141.423.028
3 rice 782.000.147 13 Bananas 2 115,737,861
4th wheat 735.179.776 14th Watermelons 103.931.337
5 Potatoes 368.168.914 15th Onions 96,773,817
6th Soybeans 348.712.311 16 Sweet potatoes 91.945.358
7th Fresh vegetables, naa 1 297,596,674 17th Millet 3 83,753,861
8th Manioc / cassava 277,808,759 18th Apples 86.142.197
9 sugar beet 274.886.306 19th Grapes 79.125.982
10 Oil palm fruit 272.055.131 20th Oranges 75.413.374
Total 20 7,474,165,573
1 not listed elsewhere
3 Sorghum + Millet

Food crops

Food plants are plants that can be used as food. Since many plant ingredients (e.g. sugar, starch, vegetable oils) are used both as food and as feed, bioenergy carriers and renewable raw materials for material use, many of the plants mentioned here are used as food crops technically as renewable raw materials, both in terms of material and used in the energetic area. This applies above all to plants that are grown for the production of carbohydrates (sugar and starch), vegetable oils and waxes, and proteins.

Plants that provide carbohydrates

Starch-supplying plants

Turnips, tubers, roots, rhizomes
Above-ground shoot axes
Seeds
Diagram of the world harvest quantities of the three most important types of grain (wheat, maize, rice) in tons from 1990 to 2017
Seeds in the pulp

Jackfruit tree , okwa tree , breadnut tree

Sugar-producing plants

(see article sugar plant )

Plants producing inulin

Protein-producing plants

High protein seeds

Oil-producing plants

Sprout tubers

Pulp

Seeds

Plants that provide vegetables and lettuce

Seaweed vegetables and mushrooms

root vegetable

Sprout vegetables

Tuber vegetables

Onion vegetables

Leaf stalk vegetables

Leaf vegetables and lettuce

Inflorescences as vegetables

Seed vegetables

Fruit vegetables

Edible plant parts are referred to as fruit vegetables, which according to different definitions are assigned to vegetables on the one hand and fruit on the other.

fruit

Fruit is a collective term for the edible fruits and seeds of mostly perennial trees and shrubs, most of which can be eaten raw.

Plants providing sweeteners

Aromatic plants

Aromatic plants that mainly contain essential oils

Aromatic plants that mainly contain sharp-tasting alkaloids

Aromatic plants that mainly contain mustard oil glycosides

Sulfur-containing spices in Allium species

Spice plants, with sour tasting substances

Spice plants that mainly contain bitter substances

Spice plants containing coumarin

Aromatic plants with other ingredients

Luxury food plants

Plants containing caffeine and theobromine

Plants containing nicotine

Drug plants

Forage plants

Forage grasses

Forage legumes

Other forage plants

Green manure plants

Technically used plants

As early as the Middle Ages, the use of “technical plants” ranged from the manufacture of cosmetics, paints, adhesives and insecticides in private households to the extraction of fibers, dyes, tannins and building materials from field cultivation.

Plants that provide fibers ( fiber plants )

Fibers made from hair

Fibers from shoot axes

Fibers from leaves

Fibers from fruits

Plants that provide wood

Non-European conifers

Non-European, special tropical hardwoods

Wood from monocots

Plants that provide cork

Plants providing tannins

Plants that supply rubber, natural resins, balms and varnish

Plants that provide wax

Plants providing dyes (dye plants , dye plants)

Plants that provide insecticides

Plants that provide energy and fuel

Biogas , ethanol , biodiesel , oil and other bioenergy sources from energy crops ;

Medicinal plants

Medicinal plants in the Brockhaus from 1937

Plants containing alkaloids as main active ingredients

Alkaloids acyclic or carbocyclic

Alkaloids heterocyclic

Plants containing glycosides as the main active ingredients

Plants with mustard oil glycosides

Plants with hydrocyanic acid glycosides

Plants with Anthra Glycosides

  • Aloe ( Aloe ferox , Liliaceae); Buckthorn ( Rhamnus frangulae , Rhamnaceae); Cascara bark ( Rhamnus purshianus , Rhamnaceae); Rhubarb ( Rheum palmatum , Polygonaceae)
Plants with emodin glycosides
Plants with di- and trioxyanthraquinone glycosides

Plants with cardiac glycosides

Plants with saponins

Plants with phenolic glycosides

Plants with coumarin glycosides

Plants with flavone glycosides (flavone plants)

Plants with indoxyl glycosides

Other medicinal plants containing glycosides

Plants containing tannins as the main active ingredients

Plants containing essential oils as the main active ingredients

Plants that contain nitrogen-free bitter substances or other N-free organic substances as the main active substances

Plants containing nitrogen, non-alkaloid, non-glycosidic main active ingredients

Plants containing mucilage as the main active ingredient

Plants containing organic acids as the main active ingredients

Plants containing inorganica as the main active ingredient

Plants containing vitamins as the main active ingredients

Plants containing the main active substances chemically little or not researched

Mushrooms with drugs or toxins

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b FAO production statistics 2018 (Crops) , fao.org, accessed on March 7, 2020.
  2. Ben-Erik van Wyk: Handbook of food plants. An illustrated guide. Stuttgart 2005.
  3. Christina Becela-Deller: Ruta graveolens L. A medicinal plant in terms of art and cultural history. (Mathematical and natural scientific dissertation Würzburg 1994) Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1998 (= Würzburg medical-historical research. Volume 65). ISBN 3-8260-1667-X , p. 103.
  4. ^ Reinhard Lieberei, Christoph Reisdorff, Wolfgang Franke: Nutzpflanzenkunde. Usable crops of the temperate latitudes, subtropics and tropics . 7th, completely revised and expanded edition, Georg Thieme, Stuttgart / New York 2007, ISBN 9783135304076 , pp. 367-370.
  5. Susanne Ehlers: Chinese medicinal mushrooms , Lübbe Verlag, 2003, ISBN 978-3431040661