ABSTRACT
The striving of the modern man towards overall well-being includes healthy food as an essential element. According to modern perceptions, food not only needs to satisfy the body’s needs for energy and nutrients, but it also needs to have a preventive function. In recent years, the Balkans have been in the focus of ethnobotanical research that reveals the traditional knowledge of the model of diet and use of the means of healing in the light of cultural diversity, placing it in a comparative matrix as part of the traditional knowledge on the Balkans and Europe. Food habits in the Balkan Peninsula are close to the modern requirements for a healthy diet. Some recent studies aim to isolate the yeast strains that could be used effectively as baker’s yeast and compared them with the commercial baker’s yeast available in the market and to identify these strains which carried a possibility of being used as industrial baker’s yeast. An essential part of the food of people on the Balkans is fermented food and fermented beverages. Fermented food includes bread, leavened pasta, dairy products, pickles, and fruit pickles. Bread is considered as leading food, and at the same time, it is much more than just ordinary food. Despite the long history of making leavened bread, where all its components and processes are technologically streamlined, today there is a real revival of interest in its traditional production. As a result of the ethnobotanical studies in the Balkan region, more than 40 plant taxa have been established which are used in traditional practices as a fermentation element, of which 30 are used in making bread yeast and 25 of them have a high index of citation in documentary sources and by informants in field studies. They are representatives of 24 families and 17 genera. The plants of the Poaceae (5), Leguminosae (3), Solanaceae (2), and Amaryllidaceae (2) predominate. Dicotyledon plant taxa are dominant (72%). All taxa are well known to the local population as plant species used for food, spices, or medicinal plants. They are related to people’s lifestyle, used in everyday life, easily accessible, and well recognizable. The number of wild and cultivated plants used for yeast is almost the same. This is yet another confirmation that cultural characteristics are seen as the leading reason for choosing the use of the plant at the expense of local flora and biogeographical features. Flowers, fruits, and seeds are the most commonly used parts. Fresh unripe apples and grapes are used for yeast, while ripe fruit is used for food. Chickpeas and hops (Cicer arietinum and Humulus lupulus) are of primary importance as a fermenting element for the study area, which is also used today.
