Breeding Research on Aromatic and Medicinal Plants

Book excerpt: The field of medicinal/aromatic plant breeding is growing and changing?this resource will help you stay up to date! In this essential book, researchers from large and small laboratories and institutions throughout Europe and the Mediterranean region explore recent developments in the selection and breeding of aromatic and medicinal plants. They take varied approaches?from traditional breeding to the use of molecular markers?and complement them with up-to-date information on biodiversity and resource conservation. From the editors: ?It is widely recognized that a strategy of `conservation through use,? by which plant collection via wild harvesting is replaced by controlled cultivation, is the best way forward if we are to balance human demands with the necessary conservation of the biodiversity represented by these species. That provides one major driving force for research in this field. Another concerns the very real need for improving the quality control of products on the market, both to satisfy consumer demand and to conform with the (justifiably) increasing requirements for standardization and precise identification of the composition of the plant materials being sold for human use. We hope that this volume will give readers a taste of the exciting developments in the field.? Breeding Research on Aromatic and Medicinal Plants examines: breeding for resistance and abiotic factors manipulating natural product accumulation through genetic engineering biochemical and molecular regulation of essential oil accumulation economic and legal considerations that breeders will encounter the ethical aspects of breeding these plants