Diplazium esculentum, the vegetable fern, is an edible fern found throughout Asia and Oceania. It is probably the most commonly consumed fern.[1]
The genus Diplazium is in the family Athyriaceae, in the eupolypods II clade[2] of the order Polypodiales,[3] in the class Polypodiopsida.[4]
This plant is a large perennial fern with ascending rhizome of about 50 cm high and covered with short rufous scales of about 1 mm long. The plant is bipinnate with long brownish petioles, and the petiole base is black and covered with short scales. The frond can reach 1.5 m in length, and the pinnae is about 8 cm long and 2 cm wide.[5]
The young fronds are stir-fried and used in salads.[6][7]
It is known as pakô ("wing") in the Philippines,[6] pucuk paku and paku tanjung in Malaysia, sayur paku or pakis in Indonesia, dhekia (ঢেকীয়া) in Assam "Dhenki Shaak (ঢেঁকি শাক) in Bengali ", paloi saag (পালই শাগ) Sylheti, ningro in Nepali,dingkia in Boro and linguda in northern India, referring to the curled fronds. In Thailand it is known as phak koot (Thai: ผักกูด). They may have mild amounts of fern toxins but no major toxic effects are recorded.[8]
The extract also had alpha-glucosidase inhibitory activity.[9]
Yam phak khut, a Thai salad of fern leaves and pork
Ensaladang pako (fern salad) at Larry Cruz's Abe Restaurant, in Manila
Habitat
Diplazium esculentum, the vegetable fern, is an edible fern found throughout Asia and Oceania. It is probably the most commonly consumed fern.
The genus Diplazium is in the family Athyriaceae, in the eupolypods II clade of the order Polypodiales, in the class Polypodiopsida.
