Status of medicinal and aromatic plants in - Inia

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WORKING GROUP ON MEDICINAL AND AROMATIC PLANTS: FIRST MEETING
Production and processing of MAPs in Serbia
The big demand for medicinal and aromatic species keeps increasing as a consequence of
irregular and uncontrolled gathering and exploitation. This imposes the need for cultivation,
production, breeding and processing of these plants. For example, before the sanctions,
Serbia was one of the biggest exporters of medicinal plants (chamomile, St John's worth,
gentian, marshmallow, etc.) with a total average amount of about 1000 tonnes of raw
material exported per year, and an income of up to 11 million US$ (Dajić 2001). However,
this position was lost and other countries from eastern and central Europe (Bulgaria,
Hungary, Slovakia, etc.) appeared on the world market. Medicinal plants from Serbia have
been exported mainly into European countries (80.26%) and USA and Canada (19.74%)
(Sekulović 1999).
Although the collecting of medicinal plants from the wild is the easiest, cheapest and
fastest way to obtain desirable amounts of medicinal plant raw material, this approach is not
desirable.
There are no accurate data on the quantities of medicinal plants collected annually.
Approximate amounts of MAPs gathered from the nature are given in Table 1.
Table 1. Wild medicinal and aromatic plants collected in 1999 (source: Stević and Bjelović 2000)
Species collected With permission Without permission %
(A) (B) (B/A)
Achillea crithmifolia W.K. 420 38 9
Achillea millefolium L. 6538 300 4.5
Agrimonia eupatoria L. 7713 6573 84.4
Althaea officinalis L. 10782 1802 16.7
Angelica sylvestris L. 204 204 100
Arctostaphylos uva-ursi L. 8942 4242 47.4
Arctium lappa L. 1350 200 14.8
Artemisia absinthium L. 6112 4812 78.7
Asarum europaeum L. 1383 33 2.3
Betula pendula Roth. 3400 450 13.2
Centaurium erythraea Rafn. 1538 596 38.7
Crataegus oxyacantha L. 6600 595 9
Equisetum arvense L. 4819 1019 21
Frangula alnus Mill. 3300 200 6.6
Hypericum sp. 159570 112697 70.6
Juniperus communis L. 438180 70587 16.1
Origanum vulgare L. 6103 1083 17.7
Plantago lanceolata L. 4492 1092 24.3
Polygonum aviculare L. 941 941 100
Primula vulgaris Huds. 2374 1649 69.4
Pulmonaria officinalis L. 2940 1663 56.5
Rosa canina L. 152926 29926 19.5
Sambucus nigra L. 27732 16587 59.8
Satureja montana L. 1325 325 24.5
Satureja kitaibelli Wiercb. 8945 6545 73.1
Taraxacum officinale Webb. 4802 852 17.7
Teucrium chamaedrys L. - 270 100
Teucrium montanum L. 692 392 56.6
Thymus sp. 13923 3403 24.4
Tilia tomentosa Moench. 9093 1697 18.6
Tussilago farfara L. 432 432 100
Urtica dioica L. 70799 51499 72.7
Vaccinium myrtillus L. 365736 45402 12.4
Despite the significant natural resources (especially in meadows and pastures), a great
number of medicinal plant populations have disappeared, while many plants are
endangered or have limited distribution and therefore should be cultivated for the sake of