Bringing medicinal plants into cultivation: opportunities and challenges for biotechnology

Canter, PH; Thomas, Howard; Ernst, Edzard

doi:10.1016/j.tibtech.2005.02.002

Cited by 411 publications

(237 citation statements)

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“…Facing the rapidly growing demands for medicinal plants, domestic cultivation is a viable and long-term way of protecting wild medicinal plant resources [3]. However, this study indicates that bringing a species into cultivation may impose profound impacts on genetic diversity patterns and even the evolutionary potentials of medicinal plants.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…With the increased realization that some wild species are being over-exploited, a number of governments and agencies are recommending that wild medicinal species should be brought into cultivation systems [2]. Cultivation of medicinal plants is not only a means for meeting current and future demands for large volume production of plant-based drug and herbal remedies, but also a means of relieving harvest pressure on wild populations [3,4]. In certain circumstances such as traditional agriculture, cultivation can serve as an important reservoir of genetic variability [5,6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Impacts of recent cultivation on genetic diversity pattern of a medicinal plant, Scutellaria baicalensis (Lamiaceae)

Yuan

Zhang

et al. 2010

BMC Genet

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BackgroundCultivation of medicinal plants is not only a means for meeting current and future demands for large volume production of plant-based drug and herbal remedies, but also a means of relieving harvest pressure on wild populations. Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi (Huang-qin or Chinese skullcap) is a very important medicinal plant in China. Over the past several decades, wild resource of this species has suffered rapid declines and large-scale cultivation was initiated to meet the increasing demand for its root. However, the genetic impacts of recent cultivation on S. baicalensis have never been evaluated. In this study, the genetic diversity and genetic structure of 28 wild and 22 cultivated populations were estimated using three polymorphic chloroplast fragments. The objectives of this study are to provide baseline data for preserving genetic resource of S. baicalensis and to evaluate the genetic impacts of recent cultivation on medicinal plants, which may be instructive to future cultivation projects of traditional Chinese medicinal plants.ResultsThirty-two haplotypes of S. baicalensis (HapA-Y and Hap1-7) were identified when three chloroplast spacers were combined. These haplotypes constituted a shallow gene tree without obvious clusters for cultivated populations, suggesting multiple origins of cultivated S. baicalensis. Cultivated populations (hT = 0.832) maintained comparable genetic variation with wild populations (hT = 0.888), indicating a slight genetic bottleneck due to multiple origins of cultivation. However, a substantial amount of rare alleles (10 out of 25 haplotypes within wild populations) lost during the course of S. baicalensis cultivation. The genetic differentiation for cultivated group (GST = 0.220) was significantly lower than that of wild group (GST = 0.701). Isolation by distance analysis showed that the effect of geographical isolation on genetic structure was significant in wild populations (r = 0.4346, P < 0.0010), but not in cultivated populations (r = 0.0599, P = 0.2710). These genetic distribution patterns suggest that a transient cultivation history and the extensive seed change among different geographical areas during the course of S. baicalensis cultivation.ConclusionsAlthough cultivated S. baicalensis maintains comparable genetic diversity relative to wild populations, recent cultivation has still imposed profound impacts on genetic diversity patterns of the cultivated S. baicalensis populations, i.e., the loss of rare alleles and homogenization of cultivated populations. This study suggests that conservation-by-cultivation is an effective means for protecting genetic resources of S. baicalensis, however, the wild resources still need to be protected in situ and the evolutionary consequences of extensive seed exchange mediated by human being should be monitored carefully.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of recent cultivation on genetic diversity pattern of a medicinal plant, Scutellaria baicalensis (Lamiaceae)

Yuan

Zhang

et al. 2010

BMC Genet

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“…Second, Cunningham (1993) noted that although cultivation can support conservation of species and reduce the extent of collection from natural populations, it may also lead to environmental degradation and loss of genetic diversity, as well as loss of incentives to continue conservation of such populations (Canter et al 2005;Schippmann et al 2006). For these reasons and due to scant research in the area of medicinals and compounded by a lack of institutional support for the production and dissemination of key species, the extent of cultivation of medicinal species globally has been limited.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategies for Sustainable Supply of and Trade in Threatened Medicinal Tree Species: A case study of genus Warburgia

McMullin

Nieuwenhuis

Jamnadass

2014

Ethnobot. Res. App.

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“…These approaches allow large-scale propagation in controlled conditions in any time of the year, hence avoiding damage of natural populations [39][40][41] . The production of essential oils in plants is under diverse physiological, biochemical, metabolic and genetic regulation 42 and generally shows a unpredictable chemical composition due to both intrinsic (sexual, seasonal, ontogenetic, and genetic variations) and extrinsic (ecological and environmental variations) factors 43,44 .…”

Section: Essential Oilsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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2016

IJPSR

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Bringing medicinal plants into cultivation: opportunities and challenges for biotechnology

Cited by 411 publications

References 42 publications

Impacts of recent cultivation on genetic diversity pattern of a medicinal plant, Scutellaria baicalensis (Lamiaceae)

Impacts of recent cultivation on genetic diversity pattern of a medicinal plant, Scutellaria baicalensis (Lamiaceae)

Strategies for Sustainable Supply of and Trade in Threatened Medicinal Tree Species: A case study of genus Warburgia

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