Flowers as Dishes With Cultural Flavors: Nutritional Profiles and Taste Characteristics of Four Edible Flower Species in Yunnan, China

ABSTRACT

Flowers are commonly consumed as vegetables and constitute an important component of local diets in many traditional food systems. In regions such as Yunnan, China, edible flowers (EFs) are deeply embedded in biocultural food practices but remain underrepresented in mainstream nutritional and sensory research. This study characterized the nutritional and sensory properties of traditionally consumed EFs of four species ( Musella lasiocarpa , Plumeria rubra , Stephanotis volubilis , and Trevesia palmata ) from Yunnan. Proximate composition, mineral elements, vitamins, and amino acids of four EFs were analyzed, with broccoli used as a nutritional reference due to its well‐recognized status as a nutritionally dense EF, while taste profiles of fresh and blanched samples were assessed using an electronic tongue. All four EFs exhibited distinctive nutrient profiles, including high dietary fiber contents (36.80–57.93 g/100 g dry weight) and comparable or higher levels of several mineral contents than broccoli on a dry‐weight basis. S. volubilis contained 10.27 mg/100 g vitamin E, while two species showed particularly high total and essential amino acid contents with favorable amino acid quality indices. Electronic tongue analysis identified CTS (Saltiness) and NMS (Umami) as the dominant taste attributes across species across all four species ( p  < 0.0001), with significantly higher intensities than the other taste indicators both before and after blanching. Blanching altered the intensity of specific taste components ( p  < 0.05, p  < 0.01, or p  < 0.001) and induced shifts in the overall taste profiles, as demonstrated by the clear PCA separation between fresh and blanched samples. Nevertheless, each species retained its characteristic sensory identity after processing. These results demonstrate that traditionally used EFs represent nutritionally valuable vegetable resources and provide scientific insights into long‐standing local consumption practices. Despite the bitterness and other taste characteristics that may limit palatability, these flowers remain popular food resources in Yunnan, suggesting that factors such as cultural context may contribute to their continued use. Integrating ethnobotanical knowledge with nutritional and sensory analyses provides a robust framework for understanding EFs and supports their sustainable use and food cultural heritage within local diet systems.