engleski

Legal protection, conservation and cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants in Croatia

The Law on Nature Protection (Official Gazette 'Narodne novine' Nos. 30/94, and 72/94) is the basic Croatian law regulating the issues of biological and landscape diversity preservation. The principal in situ biological conservation method is the establishment of the protected parts of nature. Apart from the protected area, there are also certain plant species that are protected pursuant to the Law on Nature Protection. By this point, there are 44 protected plant species. Five out of these 44 species are traditionally used in folk medicine (Anacamptis pyramidalis (L.) L.C.M. Richard ; Gentiana acaulis L. ; Gentiana lutea L. ssp. symphyandra (Murbeck) Hayek ; Paeonia mascula (L.) Mill. ssp. mascula ; Trollius europaeus L.), although it is not likely that over-exploitation for medical purposes is the main reason of their rareness. According to Article 36 of the Law on Nature Protection the Ministry's approval should be obtained for gathering plants (and their parts) that are not protected by the present or other laws if this is done for processing, commercial or trading purposes. The Rule Book on Collecting Plants in Wild which regulates the gathering, trade and export of particular wild medicinal plants is still in preparation. Upon request, Ministry issues permissions and sets quotas for the gathering of particular wild medicinal plants. Ex situ conservation of MAP species is carried out at the Pharmaceutical Botanic Garden "Fran Kušan", Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Zagreb and at the Croatian Bank of Plant Genes, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zagreb. The collection of MAP at the Croatian Bank of Plant Genes was established in 1998. Accessions are held in classical ex situ maintenance facilities (cold chamber 75 m3 ; medium-term seed storage at 4°C ; seed samples in paper bags and glass jars). Currently, the collection covers more than 900 accessions of about 180 MAP species. According to the Croatian Bureau of Statistics MAP are cultivated on an area of about 2 000 ha. The share of MAP production amounts only to 0.16 percent in area of arable land and gardens. About 80 percent of the total cultivation area of MAP is on family farms and the rest is owned by agricultural companies. Major cultivated MAP species are: German chamomile (Chamomilla recutita (L.) Rauschert), peppermint (Mentha x piperita L.), lavender (Lavandula angustifolia Mill.), sage (Salvia officinalis L.), marshmallow (Althea officinalis L.), pot marigold (Calendula officinalis L.), fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.) and St. John's wort (Hypericum perforatum L.). Since there is no statistics available on the production of specific crop, it is very difficult to give a correct estimation. MAP producers and processors generally agree that marketing opportunities do exist but there are many problems to be solved and increased governmental support is clearly needed. Main problems are lack of commercially manufactured specialized mechanization, lack of suitable storage and drying facilities, lack of commercially available seeds of modern high-quality, high-yielding cultivars, and lack of knowledge on crop-specific management (especially fertilizer requirements ; lack of approved herbicides and pesticides) and harvest techniques. Specific investments are often essential to start production and the return on investment is less predictable than in case of traditional crops.

medicinal and aromatic plants; biodiversity; ex situ conservation; genetic resources; cultivation

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