The Potential of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants in the Central Anatolian Steppe Rangeland and the Actions to Be Taken For These Plants

Abstract

The plant formation destroyed by giving way difficult conditions resulted from high evaporation, lack of rainfall in summer season developing depending on spring precipitation is known as steppe. The tree with short plant height or the bush species are run across more or less amount with these steppe sometimes. The steppe of the Turkey have got marvelous biodiversity. But also the areas to have the most genetic erosion and ecocide are these steppe rangelands. These rangelands are worthful and rich areas in terms of medicinal and aromatic plants like Astragalus sp., Thymus sp., Salvia sp., etc. It's have an importance about particularly the preservation of the steppe areas had local endemic plants. The secondary metabolite of medicinal and aromatic plants which are grown in these areas can be have various and richer content. There are a large number of medicinal and aromatic plants within plants which are determined in the vegetation survey. It's reported that the drug cost in depression treatment are decreased with using Hypericum genus which are abound in the Central Anatolian steppe rangelands instead of using antidepressant drug. Exportation of Thymus have share at 18% in medicinal plant export of Turkey. According to TUIK, the cultivation area of Salvia, which are abound (i.e. 15 Salvia genus included subspecies) in the Central Anatolian steppes following thymus export, was about 4 thousand da in 2017. These areas are failed to satisfy when considered to earn the Turkey economy of Salvia. For this reason, these steppe rangeland should be prevented, and the medicinal and aromatic plants in there should be agricultural production.