The value of Asteraceae family plants in a mountainous forest ecosystem of Central Greece

Greece holds a unique position concerning the number of plant species and subspecies compared to other global areas. This depends on the variety of habitats and geological history, climate conditions, and geographical position within the Mediterranean. Mt. Oiti is a mountain with high ecological importance, which, however, belongs to the less explored areas of Greece. In this study, we try to describe the traditional uses, according to literature, of Asteraceae family plants that recorded in the protected Natura 2000 site of Mt. Oiti in central Greece. Plant collections were mainly made in three distinct periods during 2018–2021. All habitat types distributed across the entire elevational range of the study area were systematically plant sampled during all seasons. Subsequently, references, for describing the traditional uses of plants, have been surveyed through the bibliographic search engines ScienceDirect, Scopus and Google Scholar. In this study, 279 plant taxa (species and subspecies) of the Asteraceae were recorded. In total, 44 plant taxa were cited as being useful for medicinal purposes. According to the literature, the family Asteraceae is of great interest. The study highlights important plants from an area, which has not been investigated previously. Several Asteraceae family plants recorded in Mt Oiti have therapeutic applications and have a long history in traditional medicine. It is proven that a diet rich in plants endowed with antioxidant properties, plays a preponderant role in the prevention of several diseases. Also, many plant species of Asteraceae can be included in a regular and healthy diet. It is noteworthy, this study has played an important role in the preservation of traditional knowledge in an ecologically important area, which has not been investigated previously. However, there is a dire need to phytochemically and pharmacologically test the investigated taxa for the validation of traditional knowledge.