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Genetic Resources and Ethnobotany in Aromatic and Medicinal Plants
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Genetic Resources and Ethnobotany in Aromatic and Medicinal Plants

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2025 | Viewed by 5059

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Orlanda de Lurdes Viamonte Póvoa

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Department of agricultural and veterinary sciences, Portalegre Polytechnic University, 7300 Portalegre, Portugal
2. VALORIZA-Centro de Investigação para a Valorização de Recursos Endógenos, Instituto Politécnico de Portalegre, Praça do Município 11, 7300-110 Portalegre, Portugal
Interests: plant genetic resources; medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs); ethnobotany; ethnoveterinary; plant propagation; plant breeding; forest sciences
Dr. Fernanda Delgado

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Department of Life and Food Science, Polytechnic University of Castelo Branco, 6000-084 Castelo Branco, Portugal
2. CBPBI (Beira Interior Plant Biotechnology Center), 6000 Castelo Branco, Portugal
Interests: seminal and vegetative propagation; physiology; morphology and botany; phenology; secondary metabolites: essential oils, plant extracts, biodiversity conservation vegetation, and valorization of species of regional interest; ethnobotany; herbal plants; aromatic plants; insect plant agriculture biodiversity; conservation organic farming; ornamental plants; essential oils
Dr. Graça Pereira

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
National Institute for Agrarian and Veterinary Research (INIAV), 7350-901 Elvas, Portugal
Interests: genetic resources; plant breeding; quality and nutritional traits; grain legumes

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

There are a vast variety of plant species that are aromatic and medicinal in the world. These plants have long been recognized for their rich ethnobotanical heritage, bioactive compounds, and diverse potential applications. The usage and ingestion of landraces and wild herbs is preferred differently in different parts of the world. Actually, raw plant material is commonly extracted from natural environments to satisfy the expanding demands of the agriculture, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, food flavoring, and beverage industries and other urban sectors.

Numerous conservation techniques, including both in situ and ex situ conservation, are required due to the growing interest in the usage of aromatic, medicinal, and nutraceutical plants around the world.

The current knowledge of its use worldwide, the scientific developments supporting this traditional knowledge, and strategies for conserving these species will all be covered in this Special Issue of Plants. This Special Issue provides an excellent opportunity to combine and synthesize recent research on plant breeding, ethnobotany, taxonomy, biodiversity, ecology, and conservation strategies to understand and promote the maintenance of plant diversity, as well as achieving sustainable agriculture and ecosystem management practices in the world.

Dr. Orlanda de Lurdes Viamonte Póvoa
Dr. Fernanda Delgado
Dr. Graça Pereira
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • biodiversity
  • biogeography
  • climate change
  • cultivation
  • domestication/seeding of wild plants
  • ethnobotany
  • future perspectives for wild aromatic and medicinal plants
  • historical and cultural botany
  • in situ and ex situ conservation
  • natural cosmetics
  • natural pesticides
  • phytotherapy
  • plant associations
  • plant breeding
  • plant conservation
  • secondary metabolites
  • sustainable applications
  • aromatic and medicinal plant gardens

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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18 pages, 607 KiB  
Article
Amnat Charoen Healers in Thailand and Their Medicinal Plants
by Auemporn Junsongduang, Surapon Saensouk and Henrik Balslev
Plants 2025, 14(4), 602; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14040602 - 17 Feb 2025
Viewed by 332
Abstract
Medicinal plants remain vital in the Phu Tai community in Amnat Charoen in Thailand. Traditional healers’ knowledge is largely undocumented in the literature. Our objective was to document their medicinal plant practices to preserve this valuable knowledge. Our informants were 15 Phu Tai [...] Read more.
Medicinal plants remain vital in the Phu Tai community in Amnat Charoen in Thailand. Traditional healers’ knowledge is largely undocumented in the literature. Our objective was to document their medicinal plant practices to preserve this valuable knowledge. Our informants were 15 Phu Tai healers. We calculated use values (UV), family importance values (FIV), and informant agreement ratios (IAR) to gauge the significance of the 211 medicinal plants used by the healers. The most important plant families were Fabaceae and Zingiberaceae (FIV = 93). Kha min (Curcuma longa) was the most important medicinal species (UV = 0.66). The decoction was the most common preparation method (85%). Skin/subcutaneous cellular tissue disorders had the highest informant agreement ratio (IAR = 0.73). Shrubs were the most common life form (36%) among the medicinal plants; the majority were collected from community forests (51%) and were native to Thailand (86%). The most frequently used plant part for medicine was the leaf (27%). Medicinal plants that can be purchased were Ueang mai na (Hellenia speciosa), Thep tharo (Cinnamomum parthenoxylon), and Som khon (Talinum paniculatum). Interestingly, monks served as traditional healers. The healer’s age and education were not correlated with the number of medicinal plants they knew. The Amnat Charoen healers possess a rich traditional knowledge of medicinal plants. The information reported here is invaluable for further research in the field of cross-cultural ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Genetic Resources and Ethnobotany in Aromatic and Medicinal Plants)
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19 pages, 3444 KiB  
Article
Maya Vanilla (Vanilla cribbiana Soto Arenas): A New Species in Commerce
by Araceli Pérez-Silva, Eduardo Peña-Mojica, Abimael Ortega-Galeana, Jocelyn I. López-Cruz, Carlos A. Ledesma-Escobar, Mónica Rivera-Rivera and Ernestina Paz-Gamboa
Plants 2025, 14(3), 300; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14030300 - 21 Jan 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 927
Abstract
Vanilla-producing regions in Mexico and around the world are experiencing declining yields due to global climate change. However, Mexico, Guatemala, and other parts of Central America possess underutilized genetic resources within the Vanilla genus, which can be used to increase their production. One [...] Read more.
Vanilla-producing regions in Mexico and around the world are experiencing declining yields due to global climate change. However, Mexico, Guatemala, and other parts of Central America possess underutilized genetic resources within the Vanilla genus, which can be used to increase their production. One such resource is Vanilla cribbiana Soto Arenas, known as Maya vanilla, which is native to Guatemala and Mexico. This study evaluated some of the physical and chemical characteristics as well as the aromatic and fatty acid profiles of cured vanilla pods of Maya vanilla. A 5 kg batch of cured vanilla pods from Cobán, Guatemala, was analyzed for length, weight, humidity content, and proximate chemical composition and aromatic profile using HPLC-DAD and GC-MS. The pod lengths ranged from 6 to 16 cm, and weights ranged from 2.2 to 8.2 g. The humidity content varied between 22% and 38.63%. The main component in the cured vanilla pods was insoluble crude fiber (51.18%). The vanillin, vanillic acid, p-hydroxybenzoic acid, and p-hydroxybenzaldehyde concentrations in the cured vanilla beans were 2.13 ± 0.68, 0.105 ± 0.035, 0.38 ± 0.05, and 0.345 ± 0.115 g/100 g dry matter, respectively. A total of 70 volatile compounds were identified with GC-MS—16 acids, 12 alcohols, 8 aldehydes, 15 esters, 12 hydrocarbons, 5 ketones, and 2 furans—among which were compounds characteristic of other commercial vanilla species. Oleic acid and linoleic acid represented over 82% of the total fatty acids. This study provides fundamental insights into the physicochemical and aromatic characteristics of Maya vanilla, highlighting the differences between this species and vanilla species traditionally used in commerce. Vanilla cribbiana Soto Arenas represents an excellent alternative for the vanilla market as a flavoring agent for the food and perfume industries. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Genetic Resources and Ethnobotany in Aromatic and Medicinal Plants)
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20 pages, 2822 KiB  
Article
New Chloroplast Microsatellites in Helichrysum italicum (Roth) G. Don: Their Characterization and Application for the Evaluation of Genetic Resources
by Matjaž Hladnik, Alenka Baruca Arbeiter, Petra Gabrovšek, Félix Tomi, Marc Gibernau, Slavko Brana and Dunja Bandelj
Plants 2024, 13(19), 2740; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13192740 - 30 Sep 2024
Viewed by 949
Abstract
Helichrysum italicum (Roth) G. Don is a Mediterranean medicinal plant with great potential in the cosmetics, culinary and pharmaceutical fields due to its unique bioactive compounds. Its recent introduction into agroecosystems has enhanced the exploitation of genetic diversity in natural populations, although limited [...] Read more.
Helichrysum italicum (Roth) G. Don is a Mediterranean medicinal plant with great potential in the cosmetics, culinary and pharmaceutical fields due to its unique bioactive compounds. Its recent introduction into agroecosystems has enhanced the exploitation of genetic diversity in natural populations, although limited molecular markers have made this challenging. In the present study, primers were designed for all 43 SSRs (72.1% mononucleotide, 21% dinucleotide and 6.9% trinucleotide repeats) identified in the chloroplast genome. Populations from Cape Kamenjak (Croatia) and Corsica (France) were analyzed with ten carefully selected cpSSR markers. From the initial set of 16 cpSSRs amplified in all samples, 6 cpSSR markers were removed due to low-length polymorphisms, size homoplasy and nucleotide polymorphisms that could not be detected with allele length. Of the 38 haplotypes detected, 32 were unique to their geographic origin. The highest number of private haplotypes was observed in the Cape Kamenjak population (seven out of nine detected). Based on clustering analyses, the Kamenjak population was the most similar to the Capo Pertusato (south Corsica) population, although only one sub-haplotype was shared. Other Corsican populations were more similar to each other. A cross-species transferability test with Helichrysum litoreum Guss. and Helichrysum arenarium (L.) Moench was successfully conducted and private alleles were identified. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Genetic Resources and Ethnobotany in Aromatic and Medicinal Plants)
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Review

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23 pages, 2649 KiB  
Review
Review of Mimusops zeyheri Sond. (Milkwood): Distribution, Utilisation, Ecology and Population Genetics
by Christeldah Mkhonto, Salmina Ngoakoana Mokgehle, Wilfred Otang Mbeng, Luambo Jeffrey Ramarumo and Peter Tshepiso Ndlhovu
Plants 2024, 13(20), 2943; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13202943 - 21 Oct 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1366
Abstract
Mimusops zeyheri Sond. (Milkwood) is an indigenous fruit tree species with considerable ecological, cultural, and nutritional significance that remains underexploited. This review synthesizes current knowledge on its distribution, taxonomy, phytochemistry, ethnomedicinal applications, ecological functions, genetic diversity, and biotechnological potential. A systematic literature search, [...] Read more.
Mimusops zeyheri Sond. (Milkwood) is an indigenous fruit tree species with considerable ecological, cultural, and nutritional significance that remains underexploited. This review synthesizes current knowledge on its distribution, taxonomy, phytochemistry, ethnomedicinal applications, ecological functions, genetic diversity, and biotechnological potential. A systematic literature search, spanning 1949 to April 2024, yielded 87 relevant publications from an initial 155. Mimusops zeyheri plays a crucial role in supporting the cultural traditions and economic activities of Indigenous Southern African Communities. Its distribution encompasses South, East, and Southern Tropical Africa, with substantial populations across South African provinces. Ethnomedicinally, various plant parts treat conditions including wounds, gastrointestinal issues, and diabetes. The leaves (34%) and roots (32%) are used, with infusion (33%) and decoction (31%) as primary preparation methods. Oral administration (70%) is the most common, primarily addressing skin conditions (18%). Despite its nutritional richness, a standardized nutrient profile is lacking. Limited genetic diversity studies underscore the need for further research. This study highlights Mimusops zeyheri’s multifaceted importance and research gaps, particularly in other Southern African countries. Future investigations should focus on comprehensive phytochemical analysis, ethnomedicinal validation, ecological conservation, genetic diversity assessment, and biotechnological applications. Multidisciplinary collaborations are recommended to promote sustainable utilization while preserving traditional practices. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Genetic Resources and Ethnobotany in Aromatic and Medicinal Plants)
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Other

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29 pages, 1780 KiB  
Systematic Review
South African Medicinal Plants Traditionally Used for Wound Treatment: An Ethnobotanical Systematic Review
by Farzana Fisher (née Rahiman), Charlene Africa, Jeremy Klaasen and Randall Fisher
Plants 2025, 14(5), 818; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14050818 - 5 Mar 2025
Viewed by 397
Abstract
Microbial contamination of chronic wounds complicates their treatment. Traditional knowledge systems and the diversity of indigenous medicinal plants create a haven for traditional medicine practices in South Africa (SA). This systematic review aims to present a comprehensive ethnobotanical report of traditional medicines used [...] Read more.
Microbial contamination of chronic wounds complicates their treatment. Traditional knowledge systems and the diversity of indigenous medicinal plants create a haven for traditional medicine practices in South Africa (SA). This systematic review aims to present a comprehensive ethnobotanical report of traditional medicines used in the documented empirical wound healing studies in SA. Google Scholar, PubMed, Medline EBSCOhost, Science Direct, and Scopus were sourced using the keywords/terminologies “South Africa”, “medicinal plants”, “traditional medicine” “indigenous”, “skin”, “wound”, “ethnobotany”, “survey”, “interview”, and “treatment” in different combinations. Relevant and unpublished records were retrieved from the Global Electronic Thesis Database. The searching process identified 32,419 records, of which 4005 studies were screened. Following the removal of 1795 duplicates, the remaining 2210 sources were screened by title and abstract, and 133 full-text reports were accessed and evaluated. Plants traditionally used for wound-healing purposes comprised 222 species belonging to 71 families, namely Asteraceae (predominantly the Helichrysum species), Asphodelaceae, Fabaceae, Solanaceae, and Euphorbiaceae. Plant organs used for medicinal remedies included leaves, roots, and bark prepared as poultices, infusions, decoctions, gel/ointments/lotions, and pastes. This review provides a valuable reference for future phytochemical and pharmacological studies and highlights the need for further ethnobotanical research to treat wounds in SA. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Genetic Resources and Ethnobotany in Aromatic and Medicinal Plants)
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