Articles
SELECTION AND BREEDING OF AROMATIC PLANTS – OLD AND NEW APPROACHES
Therefore, it is necessary to develop highly productive cultivars, combined with appropriate cultivation and intensive agricultural techniques.
Besides the traditional method of selection, modern strategy incuedes hybridization and genetic engineering.
These methods are used for several aromatc plants, which will be discussed herein.
Many aromatic plants are collected even today from wild populations.
These populations are the starting genetic material used for cultivation, and therefore it is of great importance to be in possession of the entire range of variation found in nature (7,16). These variation is the basis for selection.
The gene bank consists of a large collection of material from the wild populations; it is used for the introduction and domestication (22) of new species, and for cultivation trails.
During cultivation, harvest and postharvest, agrotechnical methods should be studied thoroughly, before starting commercial cultivation.
Information on propagation, spacing, fertilization, irrigation, weed control, pest treatments, etc., is among the basic knowledge needed for cultivation (11,14). Research on physiology, e.g. secondary metabolites synthesis (2,3,13), is important for understanding yield components and yield potential.
The results obtained should be combined with genetic work aimed at developing varieties adapted to modern cultivation.
A supporting research program on cytology, including polyploidy (15,20), pollination and breeding systems (1,18), is essential for the genetic work.
A selection program should be based on natural and/or induced variation, examination of this variation, identification of the best plant, its vegetative propagation, and finally releasing the new clone to the farmers for commercial cultivation.
In species where vegatative propagation is difficult, a mass selection program should be undertaken.
This prodedure was used successfully for species of the Umbelliferae family (caraway, celery, etc.) and for annual species from other families, such as sweet basil of the Labiatae and Artemisia spp. of the Compositae.