Status of medicinal and aromatic plants in - Inia

PRESENTED PAPERS 79
Ex situ conservation
Conservation of MAPs in field collections is carried out at the Institute of Botany, at the
Kaunas Botanical Garden of Vytautas Magnus University, and at the University of
Agriculture.
Target species for ex situ germplasm conservation are the following: Achillea millefolium L.,
Allium oleraceum L., Carum carvi L., Helichrysum arenarium L., Hypericum perforatum L.,
H. maculatum Cranz, Humulus lupulus L., Origanum vulgare L., Thymus pulegioides L.,
T. serpyllum L. and Viola tricolor L.
• Helichrysum arenarium is a perennial herbaceous plant native to Europe and West Asia.
It is one of the most frequently used plants in Lithuanian pharmaceutics. As gathering
from the wild has threatened the populations of this species and does not satisfy the
market demand, there is a need for its conservation and cultivation ex situ. H. arenarium
belongs to the species of rather easy introduction and acceptable conservation in field
collections. The field collection holds 10 accessions of this species. The plants of the same
population showed a wide range of variation of yield-related characters such as mass of
inflorescences, number and colour of flowers and plant height (Radušienė 2002). The
high phenotypic variation of H. arenarium may allow selection of the most valuable
accessions.
• Investigations on Hypericum perforatum and H. maculatum described the variation of
morphological and chemical characters in wild populations and field accessions
(Bagdonaitė et al. 2000; Radušienė and Bagdonaitė 2001; Radušienė 2002). The expression
of morphological diversity in wild populations and field accessions of Hypericum is
influenced by both environmental and genetic factors, while chemical variability is based
mainly on the genetic background. The content of flavonoids and hypericin varies
greatly between species, different accessions, and parts of the plant. Significant
differences were detected in the mean concentrations of quercetin, hypericin, rutin and
hyperoside+isoquercetrin in flowers and leaves of both species. The flavonoid content
appeared to be the most constant character in both species. The poorest growth and
lowest mean concentrations of secondary metabolites were found in H. maculatum.
• The oregano collection was established in the MAP field collection at the Institute of
Botany. It holds 15 accessions gathered from indigenous populations and 4 from local
cultivation. The results of primary evaluation on Origanum vulgare indicated a high
heterogeneity within the material studied. The accessions of oregano significantly
differed in all measured morphological and yield-related characters (Radušienė et al.
2002). The results of essential oil analysis show a rich composition and high variation of
its compounds. Furthermore, comparison showed that the values of oil yield obtained
from wild populations and field accessions were not significantly different.
• The studied morphological variation of thyme resulted in the identification of 8 varieties
of Thymus pulegiodes and 4 varieties of T. serpyllum in the wild (Ložienė and
Vaičiunienė 1999). Introduction of 26 wild populations of thyme in the field
demonstrated that the morphological differences were not stable with the change of
conditions. Chemical analysis revealed a wide variability in the content and composition
of essential oil of thyme. Different populations of T. serpyllum and T. pulegioides yielded
from 0.25-0.11% to 0.78–1.20% of essential oil respectively (in absolute dry matter of the
leaves+flowers fraction). A total of 80 constituents were identified in T. pulegioides and 75
in T. serpyllum (Ložienė et al. 2002). The chemical variability among thyme accessions was