Assessment of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants’ Contribution to the Country's Economy by Hybrid Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Approach: The Case of Turkey

Abstract

Medicinal and aromatic plants contribute to both the national economy and the well- being of forest villagers. In addition, these plants are generally used in a variety of industries such as medicine, food, paint, and perfumery. Using a hybrid multi-criteria decision-making method, the objective of this paper is to identify the medical and aromatic plants that contribute the most to the Turkish economy. The Entropy method was used to determine the weight values of the criteria and the TOPSIS method was used to rank the alternatives. The research covers the last decade (2012-2021). The arithmetic mean of the production, export and import quantities of each alternative in the decision matrix was determined, along with the weighted mean of the export and import values of each alternative. The medicinal and aromatic plants that contributed the most to the country’s economy were found to be poppy seed, thyme, laurel leaves. Seed (sesame seed, flax seed, safflower seed) plants are determined as the least contributing medicinal and aromatic plants to the country’s economy. Cumin, anise, and salvia have also potential in terms of economic. With these and similar studies, decision makers can determine which products are more economically significant. Thus, plants with high economic value can be cultivated.