FOREWORD

The unforeseen large participation of 1050 persons and of 40 exhibitors gave the opportunity for an intensive exchange of research results as well as discussions during the many Workshops and Round Tables foreseen in the program, bearing in mind several points of interest as also formulated in the preambule of the WOCMAP-2 Resolutions.

With 600 summaries of oral and poster presentations available in the Book of Abstracts an unexpected stream of information came available for each participant at the start of the Congress.

For several reasons the preparation of the publication of the proceedings has not been on an optimal level before and during the Congress. But after the congress the established editorial board could accomplish their task in an efficient way. We have used the same procedure as has been followed with the ISHS in 1993 for the four volumes of the WOCMAP-1 proceedings.

We would like to thank the authors for sending in their presentations in the requested format. The Editor-in-Chief professor Néstor Caffini was able, with the assistance of editors selected worldwide, to collect the reviewed documents to be published in one of the four volumes of Acta Horticulturae.

In each volume of the WOCMAP-2 proceedings are also published the Opening Address of the President of ICMAP, the Welcome Address presented by the President of WOCMAP-1 and the WOCMAP-2 Resolutions.

Organizing Editors
Dr.Helena van der Borg
Ir.Heiko van der Borg
Leiden, July 1999


PREFACE

The "green wave" has affected the whole world very strongly. The closeness to the nature, the sensitivity to the cleanness of the environment, the renaissance of folk medicine, the popularity of alternative healing methods inspire the use of more and more plant-based preparations. The number of organizations and institutions that are involved in some aspects of research into medicinal and aromatic plants, or their cultivation, harvesting, industrial applications, uses, conservation, economics and sociobiology is wildering large. They range from inter-governmental agencies to international, national and local organizations and societies, research institutes, university departments, agricultural research stations, botanic gardens, pharmaceutical laboratories, gene banks and clinical departments.

Indeed one of the reasons of the Second World Congress on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants - WOCMAP II, held in Mendoza, Argentina, in November 1997 - was to provide a mechanism that could bring together this very wide range of interests and provide a forum for specialists in the disciplines involved in the study and use of medicinal and aromatic plants to meet and work together.

As in other branches of knowledge, it is important to be aware not only of the details and technicalities of the own individual specialist field but to have at least some notions of the wider context in which one's work is placed. So, WOCMAP II constituted an international network of exchange, information and harmonization of research in the use of medicinal and aromatic plants, where about a thousand people from fifty two countries could met, enabling the interaction of scientists and technicians, growers and industry representatives engaged in different activities, considering the subject of medicinal and aromatic plants from a panoramic and global point of view.

The present volume contains a selected group of papers included in three of the eight sections of WOCMAP II, that is: "aromatic and medicinal plants as biological resources", "development and agricultural methods" and "new approaches to the search of novel compounds". Because of editorial reasons, some of the papers of the former sections, as well as papers of the other five sections has been included in the next three volumes. I wish to thank authors for their valuable contributions and co-editors for their kindly cooperation in the revision of the manuscripts.

Aromatic and medicinal plants are a significant part of biodiversity in both developing and developed countries and their conservation and sustainable needs not to be emphasized. This clearly presents new horizons for research and development to ensure that proper attention is paid to medicinal and aromatic plants in national biodiversity plans and strategies. These are challenging times and it is our hope that the WOCMAP II had played a significant role in encouraging these activities.

Prof. Dr. Néstor Caffini
Editor-in-Chief
La Plata, July 1999


OPENING ADDRESS
By President of ICMAP

Sr. Rector, Sr. Vice-Rector, Sr. Director, Professor Mandrile, Ing.Agr. Amanda di Fabio, Professor Bandoni, Ladies and Gentlemen,

The first World Congress on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants was organized in 1992 and the present Congress commemorates the 500^th anniversary of the meeting of the two cultures. It is therefore highly appropriate that this Second Congress should be held in the New World here Mendoza, in the region of Cuyo, in the foothills of the Andes. In this province, what was originally a desert has been converted through the tenacious work of the inhabitants into a series of oases (los oases mendocinos) where vines, fruit trees and medicinal and aromatic plants are grown under irrigation in the 2.1% of the surface that is currently under cultivation.

Amongst the aromatic plants are cultivated are species from Europe and the Mediterranean basin - origanum, saffron, crocus, rosemary, salvia - testimony to the links with the Old World and part of the everchanging exchange of germplasm between the continents.

At this Second Congress, over 1000 participants from 52 countries are gathered here to address the many and diverse issues that concern medicinal and aromatic plants. We come from many different disciplines - chemists, pharmatologists, biologists, coservation biologists, agronomists, industrialists, legislators, sociologists. This Congress was organized as part of the activities of ICMAP - the International Council for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants - and ICMAP itself was established by IUBS in 1993 -the International Union of Biological Sciences - following a proposal made at the first WOCMAP in Maastricht, as a forum for establishing effective cooperation between the various organizations and individual working in this field.

As President of ICMAP on behalf of IUBS I should like to welcome you all and hope that your deliberations will be successful and lead to a better understanding and more effective and sustainable use of the plants that have contributed so much to human welfare. I should also at this time like to express our gratitude to the National and Local Organizing Committees for the enormous and sustained effort that they have put into the organization of this Congress and making it possible for us to hold this event here.

At this Second World Congress, over 1000 participants from 52 contries are gathered here to adress the many and diversed issues that concern medicinal and aromatic plants. We come from many different disciplines - chemists, paharmatologists, biologits, conservation biologists, agronomists, industrialists, legislators, sociologists. This Congress was organized as part of the activities of ICMAP - the International Council for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants - and ICMAP itself was established by IUBS in 1993 - the International Union of Biological Sciences - following a proposal made at the first WOCMAP in Maastricht, as a forum for establishing effective cooperation between the various organizations and individuals working in this field.

AS President of ICMAP and on behalf of IUBS I should like to welcome you all and hope that your deliberations will be successful and lead to a better understanding and more effective and sustainable use of plants that have contributed so much to human welfare. I should also at tis time like to express our gratitude to the National and Local Organizing Committees for the enormous and sustained effort that they have put into the organization of this Congress and making it possible for us to hold this event here.
Prof. Vernon Heywood
President of the Congress


WELCOME ADDRESS
By President of WOCMAP I

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,

First of all let me thank the Organizing Committee for their invitation to speak here.

I should like to say a few words in my capacity as president of the First World Congress on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants in Maastricht in 1992. I hope that a brief review of the historical background to this meeting will be of interest.

The ISHS Congress in Warsaw in 1974 decided to set up a MAP organization. This goal was achieved during a special symposium in Freising in 1977, organized at the Institute of Vegetable Cultivation of the University of Munich by Prof. Fritz with the help of Chlodwig Franz, now vice-rector of the Veterinary University in Vienna. On that occasion, - just 20 years ago- the various participants agreed to set up a MAP Working Group within the ISHS Section Vegetables.

Meanwhile, the International Union of Biological Sciences, - IUBS -, convened a group of experts on medicinal plants, attached to the IUBS secretariat. This was announced at the IUBS General Assembly in Vancouver in 1979. To avoid duplication of effort, it was agreed that this group of experts should join the already highly reputed ISHS Working Group. It was a pity that it took so long for this decision to be reached.

In recognition of its achievements, the MAP Working Group was registered and accepted as the Fourth Section of ISHS at the 21st IHC in Hamburg in 1982. The internal organization of the Section now began to take shape, and within a year, three new working groups have been formed: one for Natural Resources, one on Cultivation, and one on Quality of MAP's.

Both ISHS and FAO agreed to extend the influence of the Section by giving it worldwide publicity. In this connection, they asked the Medicinal Plant Research Institute in Budakalász, Hungary, to start publishing a MAP Newsletter in 1984. During the seven years that it existed, this publication channeled information and views throughout the Section and to more than a thousand research centres and other addresses in five continents.

Finally, the IUBS group of experts joined the ISHS Section by merging with the Genetic Resources Working Group at a special meeting of the International Botanical Congress in Berlin in 1987 - ten years ago. The next step in this process of cooperation was a consultation of held between UN and professional organizations at IUBS headquarters in Paris in March 1988. It was then decided to organize a world congress on the importance of medicinal and aromatic plants to human welfare. The task of preparation was entrusted to the Section, under the joint direction of IUBS, IUPHAR, FAO and ISHS. This arrangement was approved by the ISHS Executive Committee the same year, and was monitored annually.

WOCMAP-1 was held in Maastricht in 1992 and fulfilled earlier professional expectations. At the same time, it was a meeting to promote the use of medicinal and aromatic plants for the benefit of humanity. Intensive, fruitful discussions at eleven workshops led to more than fifty recommendations being drawn up.

The business meeting of the ISHS Section adopted the staffing and organizational proposals made by the Latin - American region.

In addition, the closing session agreed on future cooperation among international, regional and national organizations, associations and offices. This decision served as a basis for consultations held in Paris during 1993 – 94 in order to set up the International Council for Medicinal of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, - ICMAP-. This became an umbrella for all interested bodies working with or within the frame of IUBS. ICMAP, ISHS and SAIPA then jointly decided to organize WOCMAP - 2 for the South American region in Argentina.

This is an appropriate moment to express our gratitude to our colleagues for helping to build up the Section and to re-emphasize the strenuous efforts of Engineer Emeritus Heiko van der Borg as Secretary-General of ISHS and in recent years also of ICMAP.

In the hope that the ISHS Section will provide a lasting framework for international professional activities relating to MAP's, I hereby express the wish that WOCMAP - 2 will bring success to the participants, the organizers and our common cause.

Prof. Peter Téte1nyi
Chairman ISHS Section on MAP 1982-1992
10 November 1997
Mendoza, Argentina