CONVENTIONAL BREEDING OF MEDICINAL AND AROMATIC PLANTS - FUNDAMENTALS AND EXAMPLES

Breeding has become one of the most important factors for advancement of the MAP branch because the genotypes can be adapted to the demands of the stakeholders in the production chain. Conventional breeding prevails in MAP breeding because i) expense saving methods are needed due to insufficient reflux of breeders’ expenses, ii) most MAP species provide good prerequisites to achieve good breeding progress already by simple selection, and iii) the consumers in Europe as the biggest market for MAP refuse genetically modified herbs. Nevertheless investigations on gene transfer also with MAP are running. It is demonstrated by five objects - Origanum majorana, Foeniculum vulgare, Thymus vulgaris, Carum carvi var. annuum and Hypericum perforatum that also today good breeding progress can be achieved with reasonable expenses by conventional breeding methods. Useful tools can improve the breeding efficiency, among them acceleration of the generation succession by vernalisation and cultivation in the greenhouse, exploitation of male sterility for controlled pollination, pollen conservation, computer aided image analysis, spectrometric assessment of leaf colour, efficient resistance tests, detection of the reproductive type of H. perforatum by flow cytometry and the use of markers. Focal points for future improvement of MAP breeding are e.g., the intensification of the co-operation between gene bankers and breeders, the investigation of the specifics of the reproduction biology of MAP species, the exploration of the heritability of important traits and the development of tools for efficient breeding. Hybrid cultivar breeding and clonal breeding are becoming more important at present. The paper presents a short survey on the authors’ experiences during 20 years conventional MAP breeding. Comprehensive references for more detailed information are given.