Botanical Aspects of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants

Abstract

Botany, the science of plants, is linked with medicinal and aromatic plants in many different ways. The ca. 40,000 plant species used for ethnomedicinal purposes, since the beginning of recorded history, have traditionally been collected and gathered from the wild. Botanical sciences (like plant systematics, morphology and physiology) have been assisting the study and utilization of MAPs in a multiple of ways. The study and utilization of MAPs should begin with the correct identification of plants. Formerly this was done mainly on the basis of morphological characters. With the progress of scientific - technical development, the chemical traits were also involved. Recent research trends have opened up new opportunities for revealing the DNA and biosynthetic causes of chemo-differentiation, and ultimately the information supplied by the plant metabolome. As thus, botany assisted by other scientific achievements, seems to open up promising perspectives for the breeding of new, highly powerful chemo-cultivars of medicinal and aromatic taxa. In the case of medicinal and aromatic plants the inheritance patterns, as well as the interrelatedness of economically important traits is complex. Their variability as complemented by the ecological plasticity of plants make it difficult to arrive at reliable research conclusions, to sort out the inheritable characteristics making MAP-breeding still quite a challenge. The efficiency of cultivation of these species is fundamentally dependent on the productivity of the plant biomass within which the active principles are synthesized and frequently accumulated. Their quantities and composition are important preconditions for utilization, therefore also intensively investigated botanical domains. Floristics or Vegetation Science deals with plants in geographic dimensions. The knowledge and economic mapping of MAP resources is an important contribution to the sustainable management and utilization of these species. In the wake of the Chiang Mai Declaration (1988), appropriate policies and legal frameworks, standards, etc. (GAP, GCP, GMP, Fair Trade, etc.) have been elaborated to safeguard the already frequently endangered natural resources of MAPs and to assist their the protection. These and also other guidelines (standards) are meant to contribute to the survival and sustainable utilization of medicinal and aromatic plant resources.