BIODIVERSITAS ISSN: 1412-033X Volume 24, Number 7, July 2023 E-ISSN: 2085-4722 Pages: 3804-3814 DOI: 10.13057/biodiv/d240718 Ethnobotanical study on plant leaves for food wrapping in traditional markets of Wonosobo District, Central Java, Indonesia ARYA ARISMAYA METANANDA 1.2,*,♥ , WHISNU FEBRY AFRIANTO 2,*,♥♥ , LAELI NUR HASANAH 2,3 , YASRI SYARIFATUL AINI 2 , AFNIDA SHOFFATI NOORFAJRIA 2 1 Department of Forestry, Faculty of Agriculture, Universitas Riau. Jl. HR Subrantas Km 12.5, Kampus Bina Widya, Riau, Indonesia,  email: aryaarismayametananda@lecturer.unri.ac.id 2 Ecosystem and Biodiversity Indonesia (Ecosbio). Jl. Merapi 02/01, Datengan, Grogol, Kediri 64151, East Java, Indonesia. Tel./Fax.: +62 821-1302-5726,  email: whisnu.afrianto@gmail.com 3 Department of Nutrition, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universitas PGRI Yogyakarta. Jl. IKIP PGRI Sonosewu No. 117, Yogyakarta, Indonesia *) shared first authorship Manuscript received: 9 March 2023. Revision accepted: 11 July 2023 Abstract. Metananda AA, Afrianto WF, Hasanah LN, Aini YS, Noorfajria AS. 2023. Ethnobotanical study on plant leaves for food wrapping in traditional markets of Wonosobo District, Central Java, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 24: 3804-3814. Currently, almost all items in our daily life are made from plastic, such as food packaging, household appliances, drink bottles, and plastic bags. The use of plastic packaging can harm the environment and human health. Plant leaves for food wrapping can be an alternative to reduce these impacts. Indonesia has many cultures, philosophies, and social activities related to using plant leaves for food wrapping. This study aimed to document public knowledge about plant leaves for food wrapping in the traditional markets of Wonosobo District, Central Java Province, Indonesia. This study used the purposive sampling technique to select 41 informants for the interviews. A total of 10 plant leaves species belonging to 7 families were used for food wrapping by traders in the traditional markets of Wonosobo District. The ten species were Musa spp., Tectona grandis, Cocos nucifera, Artocarpus heterophyllus, Artocarpus camansi, Ficus septica, Hibiscus tiliaceus, Pandanus amaryllifolius, Cordyline fruticosa, and Alocasia macrorrhizos. These trees dominate plant growth forms in this study. The leaves of these different plants were used as food plates and wraps for multiple dishes. Efforts are needed to reduce plastic use in the traditional markets by making regulations to minimize or substitute with plant leaves. Keywords: Food wrapping, plant leaves, plastic, traditional markets, Wonosobo INTRODUCTION Recently, almost all items in our daily life are made from plastic, such as food packaging, household appliances, drink bottles, and plastic bags. This is not without reason because plastic is a practical and economical material to be processed into a product. The use of plastic from time to time continues to increase significantly. However, plastic can have negative impacts on the environment and human health. This object is difficult to decompose in nature, and long-term use is also dangerous for human health. Plastic pollution has emerged as a pressing environmental issue of considerable significance in contemporary times. Plastic pollution does not occur on land but also pollutes the rivers because of the large amount of garbage dumped in the rivers. High pollution in the marine can cause several negative impacts, such as increasing the potential for flooding (Honingh et al. 2020), disturbing marine habitats and biodiversity (Gall and Thompson 2015; Compa et al. 2019; Azevedo-Santos et al. 2021), the risk to food safety and human health because of contamination of water and seafood with microplastics (Smith et al. 2018; Danopoulos et al. 2020). Indonesia encounters significant environmental challenges, particularly in relation to the issue of plastic pollution. (Purba et al. 2019; Vriend et al. 2021). According to data from the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry, the total waste heap in Indonesia reaches 30,783,783.82 tons/year, of which 34.94% of the waste needs to be managed correctly (KLHK 2021). After China, Indonesia is the second most significant contributor to marine plastic waste globally. Cigarette butts were found the most, followed by food packaging and plastic waste in drink bottles, crackle bags, plastic straws, plastic containers, plastic drink lids, and styrofoam (Abdila 2021). Plastic pollution in Indonesia is expected to increase. For example, in the beverage industry of Indonesia in the first quarter of 2019, the growth of the beverage processing industry reached 24.2% year-on-year (YoY), only behind the apparel industry. Rapid growth will increase the number of plastic waste. For human health, it can make a particle and chemicals toxic because plastic equipment is made from polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate, polyester, polyethylene, polystyrene, polycarbonate, epoxy resins, polyvinylidene chloride, polysulfone, polyvinyl chloride, and melamine formaldehyde (Vethaak and Leslie 2016). Furthermore, plastic debris can be a pathogen and parasite vector. For instance, human pathogenic bacteria, i.e., Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli, and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, are found in plastic debris off the Belgian coast (van der Meulen 2014).