Similarly , on the examples of Foeniculum vulgare , Angelica archangelica , Levisticum officinale

In harmony with requirements of safety, efficacy, and stability of medicinal and aromatic plant drugs and their products, the need for high quality raw is increasing. This phenomenon is proven by number of breeding results and registration procedures, concerning medicinal and aromatic plant cultivars, recently reported from different countries. The worldwide progress achieved in breeding is obvious, in spite of the fact, that different strategies and methods are used country by country. In the present work breeding strategies used for changing the accumulation level and composition of active agents are overviewed. The utilization of the chemical diversity of the plant kingdom is one of main direction of investigations. Search for inter-, or intraspecific distribution of welldefined active compounds is one of the most important goal of analysis, resulting in large numbers of cultivars of practical importance. The majority of plant materials under cultivation have been created by conventional selection methods, even today, including individualmass-, or special selection methods. More recently outstanding results achieved by hybridization, polyploidization and mutation are reported. The application of transformed cell cultures and genetic-engineering based on the over expressing or suppressing of genes responsible for biosynthesis of a special active agents may offer new possibilities and might became a novel tool in the breeding of medicinal and aromatic plants in the future. INTRODUCTION In harmony with recent regulations (WHO, ESCOP) the quality of medicinal and aromatic plants and their products have to fulfill requirements of safety, efficacy and stability (Franz, 2000). To meet these demands, either the plant comes from wild or cultivation, more detailed knowledge on chemical and production-biological properties of species are required. However, the reliable standard production of raw, supposed to be achieved by using GAP system of cultivation, requires cultivars of high productivity. Large numbers of breeding and registration of medicinal and aromatic plant cultivars are being reported from different countries (Sarma et al., 1996, Bernáth, 2000a, Pank, 1998, Paun et al. 1996, Zheljazkov et al., 1996). The goal of the breeding varies in the great deal. In some cases the improvement of the morphological and production biological characters of plants has to be achieved. Modification of the accumulation level of the active agents can be chosen for the goal of the selection either the increase or decreases of the biologically active compounds are necessitated. Especially from point of view the cultivation practice the life form of the species has to be modified. As a result of selection, annual forms of Salvia sclarea, Carum carvi, Verbascum officinalis were registrated. In some cases, the success of cultivation depends on resistance of species. In this respect cultivars of high pathogen resistance (Mentha piperita, Hypericum perforatum) and cold tolerance (Rosmarinus officinalis) were selected and registrated. In the present work the overview is restricted to the breeding strategies used for changing the accumulation level and compositional characters of active agents. Proc. Int. Conf. on MAP Eds. J. Bernáth et al. Acta Hort. 576, ISHS 2002 116 EVALUATION OF STRATEGIES AND RESULTS CONCERNING GENETICAL IMPROVEMENT OF MEDICINAL AND AROMATIC PLANTS Exploitation of Natural Biodiversity The chemical diversity of the plant kingdom is a well-known phenomenon (Swain, 1976, Tétényi, 1970) and has been utilized for improving medicinal and aromatic plant production, since centuries (Van Harten, 1984). As it was justified by the data, both interspecific and intraspecific chemical diversity may occur. The accumulated diversity of carvacrol on both family (genus) and intraspecific level is an excellent example of this phenomenon (Bernáth, 1996a). As it is obvious from the data of Table 1, 61 taxa of six family based on their chemical similarity can be ranged into the same practical (interspecific) chemical group and described as origanum, commercially (Lawrence and Reynolds, 1984). Contrary, inside the genus Origanum there are species (intraspecific chemical taxa) having no "oregano" character at all (Fig. 1). Motivated by the results of the former chemotaxonomical findings exploitation of the chemical diversity of natural flora had been intensified and widened, recently. The main directions of investigations are as follows: a) Search for inter-, or intraspecific distribution of well-defined active compounds is one of the most important goal of analysis, even today. As an example, the well known chamazulene and bisabolol-types of Matricaria recutita were found, checking 29 local populations in Bulgaria (Stanev et al., 1996), two new chemotypes of the species accumulating jaceidin and chrysosplanitin were identified in Slovakia (Repcak et al., 1999), while in contrast no special chemotypes of practical importance were found in Greece (Wogiatzi et al., 2000). In Argentina, the presence of thymol, thymolcarvacrol, and pulegone types of Minthostachys verticillata were detected in different regions (Zygaldo et al., 1996). High chemical biodiversity of many other species, including Peumus boldus (Vogel et al., 1999), Cinnamomum verum ( Joy et al., 1998), Borago officinalis ( De Haro et al., 2000), and Achillea crithmifolia (Németh et al., 1993) were found and utilized. b) The identification and selection of plants (chemotypes) with absence of compounds of adverse effects have became an important subject, too. In this respect works of Rode et al. (1996) for detecting asaron content of Acorus calamus and finding the distribution of pyrrolizidin alkaloids in Petasites hybridus are good examples (Chizzola, 2000). c) Correlation analysis between the chromosome number and production ability of the natural populations is a new line of investigation. In this respect works concerning Marrubium vulgare (Letchamo and Mukhopadhyay, 1997), Acorus calamus (Rode et al., 1996) and 31 other species by Murin (1997) are worth to mention. d) Number of natural populations and their active agents were checked for special biological activity. Origanum species collected from Euboea and Crete were characterized according to their antimicrobial and cytotoxic activities (Sivropoulou et al., 1996). Ocimum species from India were evaluated analyzing their efficacy against Aspergillus niger, Rhizopus stolonifer, Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis and B. megaterium. The essential oil of O. basilicum var. purpurescens was the most potent according to the results (Thoppil et al., 1998). In the case of Lippia alba and Cymbopogon species large chemotype dependencies in analgesic, antiinflammatory and antibacterial activities of essential oils were found (Viana et al., 1998, Pattnaik et al., 1996). e) Introduction of current biochemical and analytical methods for identification and description of chemical biodiversity of medicinal and aromatic plants are in progress. In Finland, 20 local Tanacetum vulgare genotypes (Keskitalo et al., 1998), while in Japan five species and subspecies of Atracytylodes genus were characterised by DNA content (Kohjyouma et al., 1997). In both cases, the effectiveness of the methods in chemotype distinction was proven. By the help of DNA analysis the distinction of various samples of Melissa officinalis subspecies was effectual, too (Wolf et al.,