Herbs, Spices, and Medicinal Plants: Recent Advances in Botany and Horticulture

A special issue of Horticulturae (ISSN 2311-7524). This special issue belongs to the section "Medicinals, Herbs, and Specialty Crops".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 December 2023) | Viewed by 1827

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail
Guest Editor
College of Biology and Environment, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China
Interests: plant biotechnology; medicinal plant; secondary metabolite; genetic transformation

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Botany & Microbiology, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Interests: plant biotechnology; in vitro morphogenesis; tissue culture; germplasm conservation; genetic transformation; molecular markers; effect of nanoparticles and bisphenols
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The multifaceted benefits of herbs, spices, and medicinal plants have been widely recognized for several decades. They are used for food seasoning, coloring, and flavoring in homes and industries, and also offer health benefits; for example, they are rich sources of antioxidants. Medicinal plants have been used to develop drugs and treatments for diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease, and are a vital source of natural remedies for people who prefer alternative medicine or for those who have adverse reactions to synthetic drugs. The development of these drugs and treatments is based on the active compounds in these plants, which are known to have therapeutic properties. There is significant global demand for these natural products, with the market value of medicinal plants exceeding USD 100 billion annually, and that of spices estimated at USD 5.86 billion in 2019.

The integration of horticulture, botany, and medicine has brought about the realization that plants can help prevent and cure diseases. This has created an important link between botany and medicine, horticulture, and health. The aim of this Special Issue, "Herbs, Spices, and Medicinal Plants: Recent Advances in Botany and Horticulture" is to present the latest global techniques and advances in the field. The articles in this Special Issue cover a wide range of topics, including the cultivation and propagation of medicinal plants, the identification and characterization of bioactive compounds, and the pharmacological and clinical evaluation of herbal medicines. This issue welcomes innovative articles that explore the use and development of herbs, spices, and medicinal plants.

Dr. Zishan Ahmad
Dr. Mohammad Faisal
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. Horticulturae is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2200 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

  • crop production
  • tissue culture
  • medicinal/horticultural plants
  • secondary metabolites
  • pharmacological importance
  • genetic transformation

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

13 pages, 2797 KiB  
Article
Establishment of an Ex Situ Collection of Glycyrrhiza glabra L. as a Prerequisite for Field Cultivation in Bulgaria
by Asya Kozhuharova, Milena Nikolova, Stoyan Stoyanov, Elina Yankova-Tsvetkova, Vladimir Ilinkin, Strahil Berkov and Marina Stanilova
Horticulturae 2024, 10(1), 86; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae10010086 - 16 Jan 2024
Viewed by 732
Abstract
Glycyrrhiza glabra L. (Fabaceae), commonly known as licorice, is a perennial medicinal plant. Its healing properties are due mainly to the secondary metabolites glycyrrhizin and flavonoids accumulated in the roots of plants aged 3 years or more. Overexploitation of licorice populations in Bulgaria [...] Read more.
Glycyrrhiza glabra L. (Fabaceae), commonly known as licorice, is a perennial medicinal plant. Its healing properties are due mainly to the secondary metabolites glycyrrhizin and flavonoids accumulated in the roots of plants aged 3 years or more. Overexploitation of licorice populations in Bulgaria led to their rapid decrease. The species is protected by the national Biodiversity Act. The present study aimed at establishing of an ex situ collection of G. glabra using plant material originating from its Bulgarian populations in order to evaluate the main characteristics of the cultivated plants and their potential use as a source of plant material for the creation of a plantation. Plants were obtained from stolon cuttings of donor wild-growing plants from three Bulgarian populations and then cultivated for 3 years in the experimental field plot. Plants originating from all three populations produced glycyrrhizin and flavonoids in similar concentrations under the controlled conditions of the ex situ collection, despite the significant inter-population differences noted in situ. The soil type and supply of soil organic matter, total nitrogen and other nutrients turned out to be most important for the quality of plants in terms of both their growth and biosynthetic capacity. In addition, in vitro micropropagation has proven to be a suitable method for accelerating seedling production. These results would be of practical importance in establishing an agricultural plantation of G. glabra. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop