applied sciences Article Home Gardens as a Source of Medicinal, Herbal and Food Preparations: Modern and Historical Approaches in Lithuania Zivile Pranskuniene 1,2, * , Roberta Bajoraite 2 , Zenona Simaitiene 3 and Jurga Bernatoniene 1,2   Citation: Pranskuniene, Z.; Bajoraite, R.; Simaitiene, Z.; Bernatoniene, J. Home Gardens as a Source of Medicinal, Herbal and Food Preparations: Modern and Historical Approaches in Lithuania. Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, 9988. https:// doi.org/10.3390/app11219988 Academic Editor: Gregorio Peron Received: 2 July 2021 Accepted: 22 September 2021 Published: 26 October 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Department of Drug Technology and Social Pharmacy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, 44307 Kaunas, Lithuania; Jurga.Bernatoniene@lsmuni.lt 2 Institute of Pharmaceutical Technologies, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, 44307 Kaunas, Lithuania; roberta.bajoraite@stud.lsmu.lt 3 The Museum of History of Lithuanian Medicine and Pharmacy, Rotuš˙ es 28, 01100 Kaunas, Lithuania; zenona.simaitiene@lsmu.lt * Correspondence: zivile.pranskuniene@lsmuni.lt Abstract: The culture of home gardens in Lithuania comes from the deep traditions of agriculture. The purpose of this study was to collect and evaluate the ethnobotanical knowledge of medicinal plants grown in Taurag ˙ e District home gardens and to compare it with archival sources. A field survey was conducted from July 2019 to October 2020 in the Taurag ˙ e District, and the target group consisted of 27 respondents. The data obtained during the research were compared with the unpublished work of E. Šimk ¯ unait ˙ e, dated 1948. During the research, 100 cultivated plant species were recorded and assigned to 36 plant families (76 plant species and 38 plant families in the archival source, respectively). Many of the species grown earlier/at present in home gardens were used without EMA approved medical indications and were based solely on folk knowledge and experience in medicine. Despite the wide network of pharmacies and well-available primary health care in Lithuania, the residents of Taurag ˙ e District still grow medicinal plants in their home gardens for various purposes— from homemade medicines to food–herbal preparations. This food–medicine connection is as tight as it was in the archival study of 1948, which shows the surviving Lithuanian tradition of growing both food and medicine in home gardens. Those cultivated plants most suitable for Lithuanian climatic conditions and with ethnic heritage-based medical applications can be a source of ideas for further research. Keywords: home gardens; herbal preparations; Lithuania 1. Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has created conditions for looking at the provision of health care via food at the household level as a crucial issue for public health, since homemade foods represent primary health care remedies that communities rely on in times of crisis [1]. It is a worldwide trend that the majority of medicinal plants sold in local markets are wild species, which is obviously an environmental issue [2], while cultivated plants solve the problem of conservation of wild plant species. In Eastern Europe, selling of crops and processed homegrown food products is closely related to the economy of these countries [3]; this trend is also observed in Lithuania, where elder people face a difficult economic situation. The cultural aspect is important too, because medicinal and food plants have long been collected or grown in Lithuania. Often, plants from fields are planted near houses to have on hand when needed. Field plants (such as wormwood), which are necessary as a medicine and do not grow in the surrounding area, are also planted near homes. This trend is also observed in other countries, not only with medicinal plants but with wild forms of plants brought to the garden and cultivated directly for food purposes, either because of the expected greater Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, 9988. https://doi.org/10.3390/app11219988 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci