Peduruhewa P.S.^{1, 2}, Jayathunge K. G. L. R.^1,, Liyanage R.¹

Today, it has been a big challenge to provide a safe, healthy and nutritious source of food for people, especially for poor income groups and undernourished populations of the developing world. Finding cheap and alternative sources of healthy and nutritious food has become a critical issue due to the food scarcity, high cost and unreliable supply of healthy food in developing and undeveloped countries. Tapping in to the world of Underutilized Wild Edible Plants (UWEP) will allow us to provide a substantial solution for food insecurity. UWEP have been identified as a reliable and long term solution due to the availability of micronutrients, bioactive compounds and their pharmacological importance. UWEP based diet should be expanded around the world, after conducting researches to fill the missing information such as micronutrient bioaccessibility, anti-nutrients, elimination of anti-nutrients and novel trends. The purpose of this paper is to explain the potentials of UWEP to cope up with malnutrition and food insecurity, which are burning issues that needs immediate attention.

food scarcity, food insecurity, malnutrition, micronutrients