BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA SHEET

Other research has been directed towards measurement of calcium avail­
ability in edible wild plants. Walker et al. (1975) noted that calcium, while
high in some wild species, may not be easily available upon digestion, but
that where dairy products are not incorporated into diet, calcium from edible
green leaves may play a very significant role in diet. Hennessy and Lewis
(1971), writing on the anti-pellagragenic properties of wild plants used by
the Zulu, noted that many of the leaves were high in nicotinic acid and could
be used to control the nutritional disease, pellagra. They identified twelve
promising wild plants that if eaten in combination with a maize diet, would
reduce or nearly eliminate pellagra (Table 28). Fox and Stone (1938), writing
on the anti-scorbutic properties of traditional fermented beers, identified
one prepared from marula fruit (Sclerocarya caffra) as being able to control
or eliminate scurvy.
Additional contributions to understanding the nutritional properties of
edible wild foods have been produced by Wehmeyer (1966; 1971) reflecting his
sustained research on the edible wild fruits of South Africa. Fatty acid
composition of edible species of Parinari capense and Parinari curatelli­
folia have been reported by du Plessis and Vladar (1974)
Republic of Botswana
Before the last decades of the 19th century, only fragmentate data
on Tswana food and diet had been published. Those data that were published
stem from accounts of early travelers in Southern Africa who worked or lived
among several distinct Tswana societies in the region of what is now South
Africa and Botswana. Lichtenstein (1970, p. 80) visited the Tswana Tlhaping
in 1803 and 1805, reporting that poorer individuals subsisted mainly on plants
and wild berries. On a subsequent visit Lichtenstein (1812, Vol. 2, pp. 410­
58.