ISHS Acta Horticulturae 73: I International Symposium on Spices and Medicinal plants
HERBICIDES IN CAMOMILE CULTIVATION |
| Authors: | J. Reichling, H. Becker, P.-D. Dräger |
| Abstract:
The wild camomile (Matricaria chamomilla) is one of the medicinal plants that have maintained a firm place in medical therapy. The spasmolytic and antiphlogistic properties of the drug - flores chamomillae - has been traced back to the presence of various sesquiterpenes (e.g. azulene, bisabolol), unsaturated polyacetylene compounds (cis/trans-EN-IN-dicycloether) and flavonoids (e.g.apigenine, apigetrin, patulitrin etc.) (Isaac, 1974). The present significance of the camomile drug is apparent from the increasing imports into the Federal Republic of Germany over the last few years. The imports of flores chamomillae between 1965 and 1975 almost tripled (hgk communications 1976). The increasing demand for medicinal herbs for the pharmaceutical industry has led to greater dependence on cultivated plant material so as to guarantee sufficient supplies of raw material for the industry (Plocek 1977). It is however true that world consumption of medicinal plants is still largely supplied from collections of wild herbs (Schilcher 1971). What speaks in favour of cultivation is the possibility of producing uniform plant material at pre-determined intervals and in the required quantities. Suitable species selection guarantees more or less constant quality (e.g. with regard to significant component substances), thus complying with the call for "standardised drug preparation". A disadvantage of systematic medicinal plant cultivation ist that, like every monoculture, the field crop, consisting as it does of one plant species only, is threatened by epidemic disease and by pests. It is for this reason that herbicides are coming into use more and more in the field of medicinal plant cultivation. There have already been a variety of attempts to treat camomile cultures with herbicides (Horn 1969; Neubauer et al 1972; Bachthaler and Hölzl 1971, 1974; Vömel, Hölzl and Franz 1972). As these attempts, due to the various local conditions prevailing, produced contradictory results and no herbicide appeared to be satisfactory, some of the usual herbicides were selected for the present test with a view to looking into their effects on the camomile crop from various aspects:
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